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<^ 



THE MAKING OF 
THE OHIO VALLEY STATES 

1660-1837 



BOOKS BY SAMUEL ADAMS DRAKE 



The Making op New England, 1580-1643. 
Illustrated. 12ino. $1.50. 

The Making op the Great West, 1512-1853. 
Illustrated. 12nio. $1.50. 

The Making op Virginia and the Middle 
Colonies, 1578-1701. Illustrated. 12mo. 

$1.50. 

The Making of the Ohio Valley States, 
1660-1887. Illustrated. l2mo. $1.50. 



THE MAKING OF 

THE OHIO VALLEY STATES 

1660-1837 



BY 



SAMUEL ADAMS DRAKE 



'Histories malce men wise." — Bacon 



WITH 3IANV ILLUSTRATIOKS AND MAPS 



I 



IfO'i^^'^ 



NEW YOEK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1894 



Copyright, 1894, by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



f5 



TROW DIHECTOny 
I PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY 

*! \0 NEW YORK 




STONE ARROWHEADS. 



00]^TE]SrTS 



First Epoch— The Conquest of the 
West. 

PAGE 

The Entering Wedge 3 

The Iroquois Blockade .... 1(5 

The Gates of the West .... 19 

Inter-Ocean Routes 23 

A Visit to the Miami and Potta- 
watomie Villages '27 

A Prairie Portage 29 

The French on the JIi.ssd-sippi 

AND Wabash 81 

Virginia Moves to the Ohio, 1T49 ;)9 

The Building of Fort Duquesne 48 

'•Join or Die" 51 

The Tragedy of Fort Duquesne . 58 

The Highlander's Story .... 72 
The End of French Dominion, 

1759 74 

PoNTiAC's War, 1763 80 

Second Epoch— The Advance into the 
West. 



The Hunters of Kentucky . 

Wheeling, 1770 

The Battle op Point Pleasan' 

Logan's Speech 

A Kentucky Station . . 
The Rescue of the Children 
Three Great Land Schemes 
A Brave Deed of Arms . . 
Boone's Capture and Escape 
Elizabeth Zane's Heroism . 



93 
105 
106 
109 
110 
112 
113 
116 
1-22 
125 



p\ge 

To the Peace of 17S3 ..... 126 

The Commonwealth . , . . 131 

An Old Kentucky Home .... 133 

Interlude 139 

The Pilgrims of Ohio 142 

The Northwest Territory . . . 143 

Marietta, the Corner-stone . . 153 

Cincinnati Founded, 1788 ... 161 

A Combat on the Ohio .... 16b 
The Struggle for Possession. 

1790-1791 172 

Wayne's Campaign, 1794 .... ISO 

The Treaty of Greenville, 1795 . 188 



Third Epoch — Progress. 

Fall of the Iroquois, 1779 . , . 193 

The Western Reserve, 1795 . . 196 

Ohio Becomes a State, 1803 . . . 200 

Indiana Territory, 1800-1812 . . 205 

A Stampede of Horses .... 214 

Michigan and the War of 1812 . 215 

Tecumseh 227 

Johnson's Kentuckians .... 228 

The National Road 229 

The First Steamboat 233 

The Erie Canal, 1825 2-36 

Indiana a State, 1816 239 

Emigrants on the Prairies . . . 245 

Illinois and Michigan, ISIO, 1837 246 

Alsatian Emigrants to Ohio . . 254 

Appendix 255 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

Mounds near Marietta, O. Frontispiece 

Pottery from Ancient Mounds . 3 

Quebec from an Old Print ... 5 

Halberdier. 1650 « 

Wisconsin Indians GATHEitiNo 

Wild Rice 10 

Explorers' Routes to the Mis- 
sissippi, Map 12 

An Indian Council, fr(5m La Hon- 

TAN 16 

Ancient Stone and Copper Rel- 
ics 17 

Michilimackinac in 1688, from 

La Hontan 21 

The Site of Chicago 24 

Earthen Mounds, in Outline . . 28 
French Settlements of Illinois, 

Map 3-3 

John Law 35 

French Military Line, Lake Erie 

to THE Ohio, 1T5.5, Map . ... 45 
Washington in the Wilds of 

Pennsylvania 49 

Plan of Fort Duquesne .... 51 

"Join or Die" 54 

Braddock's Route 59 

General Daniel Morgan . . . 61 

Plan of Braddock's Field ... 64 

Braddock's Field 65 

Beaujeu Leads the Enemy on . . 67 

Braddock Down 70 

General, the Marquis de Mont- 
calm 75 

BouQUf:T's Redoubt, Pittsburg . 77 

General James Wolfe 78 

Scalp Dance (after Catlin) . . 81 

PoNTiAC's Fire-canoes 84 

Old Barracks, Frederick. Md. . 87 

Cumberland Gap 96 



PAGE 

Daniel Boone , 97 

Pictured Rock 100 

An Ohio River Flat-boat ... 107 
Positions of Kentucky Stations, 

Map Ill 

Positions of French and English 

Forts, 1775, Map 115 

The Garrison Marching Out . . 120 
The Count de Vergennes ... 128 
What France would have Given 

us, 1782, Map 129 

Indian Pipe-bowls 141 

Washington's Headquarters, 

Newburg. N, Y 146 

RuFus Putnam 147 

Sign of the Bunch of Grapes . . 150 

Elephant Mound 155 

Ancient Earthworks in Ohio . . 156 

Mining Tools 158 

Gen. Arthur St. Clair .... 159 
Fort Washington, Cincinnati . . 164 
The Indians' Rock, Portsmouth. 

170 

Harmar's Defeat, Vicinity of 

Fort Wayne, Map 173 

Pittsburg in 1790. Military De- 
pot FOR THE Ohio 174 

United States Peace Commission- 
ers, 1793 180 

British Officers and Indian Ora- 
tor, 1793 181 

General Anthony Wayne . . . 183 
Map of Wayne's Campaign, anp 

Early Ohio Settlements . . . 186 
A Mohawk Village in New York 194 
Burning of Iroquois Villages . 195 
Old Court-house, Chillicothe. 

201 

William Henry Harrison . - 20T 



LIST OF ILLUSTKATIONS 



PAGE 

Map Showing Treaty Bound a- 

KIE8 208 

Tecumseh 209 

Battle-field of Tippecanoe . . 212 

Detroit in 1815 21(1 

MiCHILIMACKINAC 211* 

Battle of Chicago 220 

Defence of Fort Stephenson 

(Fremont, 0.) 223 

Commodore O. H. Perry. .... 224 



page 

Old Stage-wagon ...... 229 

Aaron Burr 230 

Braddock's Grave, National 

Road 232 

Fulton's Steamboat 233 

The Walk-in-the- water .... 235 

Erie Canal, Lockport, N. Y. . . 238 
American Bottom, Vicinity of St. 

Louis 247 

The Mouth of the Uhio .... 249 



FIRST EPOCH 
THE CONQUEST OF THE WEST 



" America has left behind it the cerements of the 
feudal system." 




POTTERY FROM ANCIENT MOUNDS. 



THE ENTERING WEDGE 



Traders and Missionaries 



/^UR present theme deals with the great central region 
^ comprised between the Ohio, the Mississippi, and 
the Great Lakes. It may aptly be called the heart of 
the republic, because in these great waters lie the life- 
springs of three-fourths of our country's whole area. 
Nowhere, in the United States, is there a basin of such 
vast extent, capable of feeding so vast a population. 
Hence its destiny is to hold the balance of power be- 
tween East and AVest ; hence its situation is truly regal. 

As Canada was the parent stock, upon which this 
greater domain was early grafted, we must first trace its 
growth under French rule, though very briefly.^ 

France held possession of all this immense tract, and 
much more besides, for a hundred years. History de- 
mands to know Avhat she did with it in all that time. 
Did she hold it, as a great trust, for the benefit of man- 
kind? Or was it merely treated as a great, royal pre- 
serve, in which the increase of the beaver, the marten, 
and the otter was more looked to than the increase of the 



4 THE ENTERING WEDGE 

human species? We shall presently see whether man- 
kind was any better off from her hoarding it, as the miser 
hoards his gold ; perhaps learn, too, just how much senti- 
ment has been wasted upon a class of adventurers, with 
high-sounding names, who kept the country little better 
than the S23lendid desert they found it. 

His majesty, Louis XIV., talks to his supple governor 
in this wise about that wonderful man, La Salle, whose 
discoveries were to add so much glory to this reign : 
" Like you," he curtly says, " I am persuaded that the 
discovery of the Sieur de La Salle is very useless ; and 
it is necessary, hereafter, to prevent similar enterprises, 
which can have no other result than to debauch the 
people by the hope of gain, and to diminish the revenue 
from the beaver." 

In these few tell-tale words we have the king's whole 
philosophy of government. " I am the state," he had 
said. He would not lift up the common people ; he 
would much rather see the beaver increasing than the 
population ; hence all other discoveries were to him very 
useless things indeed. 

The colony, as that part of Canada lying on the St. 
Lawrence was called, was of no very great extent. It 
mainly clustered around the island of Montreal, and the 
crag of Quebec — Montreal the storehouse, Quebec the 
fortress. 

At once fortress, capital, and port of commerce, Quebec 
held to Canada the same vital relation as Boston to New 
England. It Avas the cradle, the heart, the shield of 
Canada. Endowed by nature with a position almost im- 
pregnable, it attracted the sure and experienced eye of 
Champlain, its founder, as in the previous century it had 
that of the intrepid Jacques Cartier, its discoverer. 



THE ENTERING WEDGE 7 

men, used to the woods, skilful with their weapons, and 
hardly less ferocious in combat than the red men them- 
selves. In time of war they could be turned out to a 
man, because they had no choice but to obey the call or 
be shot, whereas, in the English colonies, the people 
could not be forced into the ranks, against their own 
laws. Hence the whole fighting population could be 
mustered, at very short notice, by a simple proclamation ; 
and woe to him who failed to be at the place appointed ! 

Under Louis XIV. Canada could not well be anything 
but a military despotism, not greatly softened by an ec- 
clesiastical despotism. Old France had been governed 
by priests ; the same thing was attempted here. This 
the king's officers warmly resented. So there was con- 
stant wrangling between them. 

Men would hardly risk crossing the ocean, knowing 
that they would be no better off by doing so — that the 
same stern despotism followed them everywhere. And 
even if they had come out to Canada, removals into the 
remote parts of it, to make new settlements, would have 
been strictly forbidden. This kept the colony small, if 
not select. In France Canada was valued first of all for 
its fur-trade, and afterward as an outlet for French 
goods ; so that in one way or another nearly everybody 
there lived by the fur-trade ; and the beaver-skin was the 
currency of Canada, just as tobacco was that of Virginia. 

This fur-trade being wholly in the king's hands was, 
at best, nothing but a gigantic monopoly. Those wish- 
ing to engage in it had to pay roundly for the privilege, 
to say nothing of the gratuities demanded by those who 
had the granting of these permits. Traders bought the 
right to take so many boats, with so many men, to such 
or such a nation. Half the year the bone and sinew of 



S THE ENTERING WEDGE 

the colony were roaming the distant prairies in quest of 
furs. True, it encouraged a life of adventure, but not a 
domestic life. It opened paths, but built no cities. It 
enriched the few at the expense of the many. It gave 
men a splendid physical training, but kept them igno- 
rant dependants. 

What does the king himself say on this head ? " Up 
to this time," he says again, " I have seen little success 
m the enterprises of the Sieur de La Salle for the dis- 
covery of the western parts of Canada; and as it is al- 
leged that he has given permits to several individuals to 
trade with the Indians, under pretext of this discovery 
you should clearly explain to him my intention that he 
should grant no such permits." 

In this curt style did this king-and he was every 
inch a king-remind his subjects that he alone was 
master. Though gilded, the rod he held over them was 
still a rod of iron. 

Canada, then, was a royal colony carried on for rev- 
enue only, with the head at Versailles and the hands at 
Quebec. Its rise or fall depended to a very great ex- 
tent upon the yield of beaver. Of progress, in any en- 
lightened sense, we discover very few traces indeed. 

Here, too, we have the native genius of two great peo- 
ples sharply defined. The Latin race conquered, but did 
not colonize. The Anglo-Saxon race conquered to colo- 
nize. In Canada the first object of men and rulers was 
the beaver-skin. Quarrels with the English, quarrels 
with the Iroquois, quarrels with each other, all hinge 
upon that one article of trad-e; as, conversely, alliance^'s, 
truces, or treaties all look to the same end. 

To push this trade into new channels was, therefore a 
prime object with every ambitious adventurer ; for in 



THE ENTERING WEDGE 9 

every old corner some existing monopoly was already se- 
curely intrenched. These "runners after profitable ad- 
ventures " were the explorers — good, bad, or indifferent. 

Of these there were two classes, who to-day share the 
honor of having first opened the way into the Far West. 
There were the men like La Salle, who were looking for 
gain, and there were the men like Marquette, who were 
looking for souls to be saved. Both worked with patient 
heroism and unflagging zeal, both endured equal hard- 
ships, and both have left imperishable records to pos- 
terity." These two were the types of many. One 
wrought for glory in this life, the other for that of the 
life to come. 

The explorer for trade carefully looked over the face 
of the country for the best routes ; saw the people ; got 
the best idea he could of their numbers, power, and re- 
sources ; picked out sites for his trading-posts, as he 
went along ; and roughly calculated, in. his mind, from 
what he saw and heard, how many skins each tribe could 
probably be made to furnish in return for brandy, pow- 
der, lead, and a few cheap goods. The larger the tribe, 
the greater the profits. 

The missionary either was sent out among the savages 
by his superior, or went voluntarily, at the call of con- 
science. Never, since the days of the Apostles, were 
such tasks assumed by mortal men. Unwelcome intrud- 
ers in the squalid wigwams of these fierce pagans, they 
were in turn starved, spit upon, and tortured, not only 
in the spirit, but the flesh also. Joyful, indeed, was 
that day on which the missionary could claim even one 
convert. All had gone forth to a voluntary exile ; some 
to martjrdom itself. 

The missionary became an explorer, too, though he 



10 



THE ENTERING WEDGE 



studied the countiy witli a far different object from the 
trader. Each, however, diligently worked to extend geo- 
graphical knowledge. The trader gave his employers an 
account from his stand-point ; and the missionary wrote 
his relation, with sometimes a rude pen-sketch or two 
added, to his superior. It is to him we owe by far the 




WISCONSIN INDIANS GATHERING WILD RICE. 



best and fullest accounts of the infancy of the Great West, 
because, if not always the best observer, he was by far the 
better educated man of the two. 

The trader carried in his haversack some cheap trink- 
ets, a roll of tobacco, and a bottle of brandy. The mis- 
sionary carried his breviary. It is a sobering thought 
that the trader's brandy probably did more harm than 



THE ENTERING WEDGE 11 

the missionary's holy teachings did good. It is a humil- 
iating one that a savage should ever say to the white 
man, as these poor creatures did to their destroyers : 
" You made us drunkards ; you gave us brandy, and 
now we cannot live without it ; we must have it." 

Hence traders and missionaries were never on the best 
of terms. With good reason the traders feared the influ- 
ence of the missionaries, Avho wanted to make a man of 
the savage, while the traders would make him a sot. 

It is true that a few venturesome traders had gone into 
this far-off region before the Jesuit fathers did, for as one 
of them says, "Where there is lucre, there is people 
enough to be had." Bat the missionary was early in the 
field, ready to lay down his life in the battle with pagan- 
ism. So died Marquette, greatest, perhaps, of mission- 
aries, while La Salle, greatest of explorers, died by the 
bullet of an assassin. 

Through such untiring efforts, ranging between 1660 
and 1670, two missions had been started on Lake Supe- 
rior, one in the southwest corner, called St. Esprit, one 
at the Sault Ste. Marie ; a third at the Straits of Michil- 
imackinac ; and a fourth at the Green Bay ^ of Lake 
Michigan — all places of great resort on account of their 
fisheries, and therefore most proper for missionary sta- 
tions. 

Near the close of this period, or between the 3'ears 
1668 and 1670, it is claimed that La Salle discovered the 
Ohio, and though perhaps not clearly proved, his claim 
Avas allowed in his own time, and is generally accepted in 
ours.^ We know, at any rate, that the French saw this 
river first. We know, furthermore, that in all their sub- 
sequent quarrels over it with the English, they based 
their title upon this discovery of La Salle's. 



12 



THE ENTEKING WEDGE 



In the spring of 1671 the French took formal posses- 
sion of Sanlt Ste. Marie, the Lakes Huron and Superior, 
with all the country to the western sea ; ^ so making this 

first act of sov- 
ereignty begin 
at the extreme 
northern limit 
of the United 
States. 

In June, 
1673, Joli- 
et and Mar- 
quette, explor- 
er and mis- 
sionary, per- 
formed their 
famous exploit 
of reaching 
tlie Mississip- 
pi by way of 
Green Bay, 
Fox Eiver, and 
the Wisconsin, 
seeing the Illi- 
nois, the Mis- 
s o u r i , the 
Ohio, and the 
Arkansas, as 
they paddled 
down the majestic Father of Waters. At the returning, 
they reached Lake Michigan by way of the Illinois and 
Chicago rivers. In 1679 La Salle penetrated into the ' 
interior of Illinois, by way of the St. Joseph and Kan- 




EXPLORERS' ROUTES TO THE MISSISSIPPI. 



THE ENTERING WEDGE 13 

kakee rivers, then and there striking the first blow to 
hold the country, by building a fort near the site of 
Peoria. His men soon deserted it, however. The next 
year he himself reached the Mississippi, and two years 
later its mouth ; there taking formal possession of all the 
vast countries it watered under the name of Louisiana.* 

When La Salle came back from this expedition, which 
gained him so much honor, he chose another, and much 
stronger position on the Illinois, in room of that aban- 
doned. This was at a place called The Rock, or later. 
Starved Rock, a castellated crag, rising steeply up from 
the riverside opposite to the village of Utica.^ Here La 
Salle designed planting a colony among the numerous 
and friendly Illinois, not only to draw in the trade of all 
the region round about, and protect the Illinois from 
Iroquois raids, but to be a kind of half-way house be- 
tween the St. Lawrence and the Gulf. With his forts on 
Lake Michigan, and at Niagara, La Salle thought this 
long route might be kept open, though he must have re- 
alized that it could never be safely travelled except by 
strongly armed bodies of men. La Salle did, however, 
lay out the road for other men to travel in. 

Thus, even at so early a period, no less than three 
practicable routes had been found between the lakes 
and the Mississippi. All, of course, were previously 
known to the Indians, whose highways they had been, 
no one can say how long, and who now guided the new- 
comers over them as to old and long-travelled roads. 
What had been traversed by millions of men, from an im- 
memorial time, as the wonderful earthen mounds of this 
region show to this day, it would be absurd to call a 
trackless wilderness, especially when it was everywhere 
threaded by the well-worn trails of so many passing 



14 THE ENTERING WEDGE 

generations. All the Frenchmen could with truth say 
wa,s that they were the first white men to travel those 
paths, since grown to great highways of commerce.^ 

If, now, we look at the map, Ave are surprised to find 
how remarkably travel between the lakes and the Mis- 
sissippi is facilitated by the trend of the rivers them- , 
selves. It really seems like part of a great plan, as they 1 
uniformly take their rise near the lakes, and thence flow 
off southwesterly toward the great river. The water-shed, 
too, is but little raised above the general level of the 
country, so that if tedious, the portages were not difficult, 
like those of a mountainous region. 

So many journeys, in so many directions, had resulted 
in locating the great water-courses more or less correct- 
ly, in locating the various local tribes, and in acquiring | 
some little knowledge of their strength, their enmities, 
or their friendships. As they threaded the broad prai- 
ries on foot, or floated on the still waters that wind 
through them in silvery folds, the Frenchmen saw with 
admiration great herds of shaggy bison, quietly grazing 
on all sides of them. They saw with rapture the sun 
sink down below a horizon seemingly as far off as if they 
had been on the great ocean itself. Yet all their thoughts 
were how to keep this boundless domain a solitude. 
With a few posts well placed, and a few gifts judiciously 
bestowed, they might control the fur-trade, and hold the 
Indians in fast friendship. This was the whole philoso- 
phy of frontier life, as long ago as w^hen the first camp- 
fire was lighted on the prairies of the west. This was 
the colonial system of Louis XIY. 

As the pioneers of this region were Frenchmen, the 
presence of so many French names on the map is readily 
accounted for. In a certain way, they preserve its his- 



THE ENTERING WEDGE 



15 



tory. In like manner, another group of names stands for 
the red men, who once called all this broad land theirs. 
We would not see one of them changed, strange as they 
sound to the present generation ; stranger still as they 
must grow, as the years roll on. 

By reason of their discoveries the French claimed 
everything w^est of the Alleghanies, and for many years 
it was not Englishmen who disputed its possession with 
them, but a power they themselves had first heedlessly 
provoked on the shores of Lake Champlain, and often 
trembled at in the years to come — in a word, the re- 
doubtable Iroquois. Wherever the French went, they 
heard this people spoken of with fear and trembling. 



1 This is more fully treated of in the 
Making of the Great West, of this series. 

2 For fear of the Iroquois the French 
traders sometimes embarked at Montreal 
by night, so as not to be seen by their 
scouts. 

3 La Saxle and Marquette have coun- 
ties, to^vns, or cities named for them, the 
first in Illinois, on the scene of his ex- 
ploits, the last in Michigan. 

4 Green Bay was better known to the 
French as the Bale des Puants, or Stink- 
ing Bay. The Winnebagoes, who lived 
near it, were called Les Puans, both 
names originating in an alleged dis- 
agreeable odor to the waters of the bay. 
The mission of St. Francis Xavier was 
at the head of the bay, at the outlet of 
Fox River. A pivotal point in the his- 
tory of Wisconsin, considered by good 
scholars as its first bona fide settlement, 
the mission of St. Esprit being the first 
mission. The English name, Green Bay, 
according to Carver {Travels, p. 15), 
comes from the earlier appearance of 



verdure here, in the spring, than at Mi- 
chilimackinac. The French post here 
was called Fort La Bale, corrupted into 
Le Bay by the English. It stood on the 
west bank of Fox River. 

^ Discovery of the Ohio, by La Salle, 
rests chiefly on the authority of Joliet, 
who has it so on his map, 1674. The 
matter is discussed in Wisconsin Hist. 
Coll., is.. 108, Parkman's La Salle, etc. 

^ See Making of the Great }Vest, 
p. 79. 

'' Louisiana, the name given in honor 
of Louis XIV. 

8 Utica is on the Rock Island Rail- 
road, ten miles below- Ottawa, and five 
above La Salle. Parkman considers it 
the site of the great Illinois town of La 
Salle's and Hennepin's accounts. The 
Rock is six miles below Ottawa. Fort 
St. Louis, La Salle's fort, was deserted 
before 1721. 

9 Besides the great routes, there 
were cross-country paths connecting the 
principal villages. 



16 



THE IROQUOIS BLOCKADE 



THE IROQUOIS BLOCKADE 



Niagara the Key of the Lakes 



1 he Counsel 



a 



't 



While the French were so industriously spreading 
their net to catch the trade of the Northwest, a most for- 
midable foe rose in their path. This was not the Eng- 
lish, whose most western settlement was Schenectady, 
but the powerful Iroquois, who claimed most of the west- 
ern country themselves, by right of conquest. Their 
claim ran as far down the Ohio Valley as the Tennessee, 

or Cherokee River, as it 
was first called, from tak- 
ing its rise in the country 
of that nation, and cov- 
ered everything as far 
north as the great lakes. 
In all that vast region 
there Avere none to dispute 
their title, for even the 
most warlike tribes had 
been driven to acknowl- 
edge the all - conquering 
Iroquois as their masters. 
To give an idea of the extent of their conquests, it will 
be enough to say that the Iroquois had driven the Ot- 
tawas out of their own country, to find a present refuge 
on the shores of Lake Superior, and that La Salle found 
the numerous and Avarlike Illinois as much afraid of the 
terrible Iroquois as if they had been so many hungry 
tigers. It Avas the same thing east or south. To see the 
French Avalk in, and coolly take possession of Avhat had 




mtn. 




AN INDIAN COUNCIL (FROM LA HONTAN). 



THE IROQUOIS BLOCKADE 



17 



been won with their own blood, and by their own brav- 
ery, incensed the Iroqnois beyond measnre against them. 

Of course the French promised to protect the resident 
nations against the Iroquois, as if it was an easy thing 
for them to do, when the plain fact was that they could 
not protect themselves, or were kept in constant fear of 
their own lives. 

It had been early found that the short way to the Mis- 
sissippi lay around the stupendous cataract that guarded 




ANCIENT STONE AND COPPER RELICS. 



the Iroquois country at the west. It was as good, or 
better, than a Chinese Wall, and probably helped on the 
idea we find so generally prevailing, that a people, whose 
gateway had been built by the Great Manitou himself, 
must be under his special protection. This was Niagara 
— Niagara, the key of the lakes. 

La Salle, long-headed, astute, persuasive, had wheedled 

the Senecas into letting him build a sort of fort there, in 

the winter of 1678-79, to aid him in his explorations. 

This, however, was soon after burned, and it had not 

2 



18 THE IROQUOIS BLOCKADE 

been rebuilt. At this point, which La Salle had foreseen 
could be made impregnable to an enemy, the Iroquois 
had as good as established a blockade, which shut out 
free communication through the lakes. It therefore be- 
came an object of the first importance to the French to 
raise this blockade. 

The English took no active part in this rivalry, at first, 
except to protest that the Iroquois were the King of Eng- 
land's subjects, and therefore under his protection. But 
when the French attacked the Iroquois in their own 
country, the English did absolutely nothing to help 
them, except prate loudly about what they would do by 
and by. It was an unequal contest — a cruel contest — to 
which men of common judgment saw but one end. The 
French were playing their Northwestern allies against the 
Iroquois ; and the English were playing the Iroquois 
against the French. Whoever won, it was not to be the 
Indian. 

The importance to them of opening this route to the 
West led to an attack being made upon the Senecas, who 
held Niagara, by Governor Denonville, in the year 1687. 
Though making stout resistance, the Senecas were beaten 
from their villages, so leaving the French masters of this 
much-coveted corner of Lake Ontario. 

After this victory Denonville began the building of 
another fort, at the same spot })reYiously occupied by La 
Salle's, later so historic. This, too, was abandoned the 
next year, on account of the scurvy breaking out among 
the soldiers there, and on the demand of the English, was 
destroyed by its builders. Thus it returned to its legit- 
imate owners until many years after.^ And thus, twice 
in ten years, had the French seen this important pass 
slip through their fingers, after having, as they thought, 



THE GATES OF THE WEST 19 

got firm hold of it. They Avere thus forced out of the 
channels nature had laid down, for many years to come. 

1 The French rebuilt Fort Niagara in the same spot where Deuonville's and La 
1726, in pretended retaliation for the Salle's forts had stood.— X>oc. Hist. X. Y., 
seizure of Oswego, by the English, on 1., 446. 



THE GATES OF THE WEST 

Michilimackinac, Detroit, and Niagara 

Or all the early missions in the Northwest, Michili- 
mackinac was doubtless the most important. Sainte 
Marie of the Sault, and La Pointe, w^ere, indeed, earlier in 
point of time, and excellently placed, too, for reaching all 
the vast region tributary to Lake Superior ; yet neither 
was so w^ell situated for carrying on trade or exploration 
south of the lakes. Hence Michilimackinac always plays 
a leading part in the early history of the Northwest. 

Marquette was in charge of the mission here (St. Ig- 
nace), when, with Joliet, he started off to find the Missis- 
sippi. La Salle also made it his rendezvous, on his vari- 
ous trips to and from that river. Yet when we look at its 
place on the map, and glance over the frightful distances 
to be travelled, we cannot help asking ourselves, what 
manner of men were these, who thought no more of trav- 
ersing the great lakes in a frail bark canoe than we do 
to-day in a luxurious palace steamer ? 

Ever quick to detect a resemblance, the Indians seem 
to have been struck with that of this bold island to a 
swimming tortoise ; and that is just what the name means 
in their tongue. It soon came also to be applied to the 
adjacent shores, though belonging, first of all, to the 
island itself. 



20 THE GATES OF THE WEST 

Then again, Michilimackinac was the regular rendez- 
vous for the multitudes who every year came there to spear 
the white fish, or to make their annual canoe voyages to J 
Montreal with the winter's catch of peltries. In a little 
time it was the traders who came to the Indians to buy 
and sell, thus turning Michilimackinac into a trading-post. 

This was neither more nor less than cutting off the 
Indian trade from the colony for the benefit of a few li- 
censed traders, and it gave rise to endless bickerings. 

When, however, these traders began coming up the 
lakes, the Indians still came here to exchange their pel- 
tries for goods. There were always two opinions in Can- 
ada as to which was for the best interests of the colony, 
one party being as strongly in favor of the old way as the 
other was of the new. And sometimes one, sometimes 
the other got the king's ear. So we see that all were 
not agreed upon the policy of extension by any manner 
of means. Indeed the two parties were bitterly hostile. 

Within a very few years, the importance of its trade 
caused the sending of soldiers there for its protection, and 
Michilimackinac then became a military trading-post, with 
a mission attached. Baron La Hontan says it was so 
chosen on account of its security from Iroquois raids, as 
even these tigers dared not venture across the rough 
waters of Lake Huron in their frail canoes. The same 
writer describes the place as he saw it in 1688 as fol- 
lows : 

" It is," he says, " not more than half a league from 
the outlet of Lake Michigan. Hurons and Ottawas have 
each a village here, separated by a single palisade, but 
the Ottawas are beginning a fort at some twelve hundred 
paces off. They take this precaution on account of the 
murder of a certain Huron by four young Ottawas. The 



'^ome rf^age , itC' 




ailCHILIMACKINAC IN 16S8, FROM LA HONTAN. 

[Explanation.— A, French village; B, Jesuit mission; C, Huron village; D, coni- 

fields ; E, Ottawa village.] 



22 THE GATES OF THE WEST 

Jesuits have a little house by the side of a sort of church, 
inclosed by palisades, which separates tliein from the 
Huron village. All their missions are subordinate to this 
one." The roving traders, he adds, had only a very tri- 
fling establishment there, though he thought it must in- 
crease with the growing importance of the trade. This 
account will equally stand for most of the early French 
settlements. 

La Hontan's rough sketch of Michilimackinac is here 
inserted, rude as it is, because it is the earliest known 
picture of the place, besides conveying a tolerably accu- 
rate idea of what it was like in its infancy. 

There was an auxiliary mission (St. Simon), founded 
at the same time at Great Manatoulin Island, where a 
band of Ottawas had made their residence, after being 
driven from their old homes. 

In some six years more (1694), Michilimackinac had 
six or seven thousand Indian residents at certain seasons, 
a fort with two hundred soldiers, and a village of about 
sixty houses, occupied by traders or bush-rangers, besides 
the mission. La Motte-Cadillac was now in command. 
It must be understood, however, that these houses were 
nothing more than rude log-cabins, chinked with mud. 

The French now felt themselves strong enough to 
take a bold step. This was nothing less than the seizure 
of the outlet of Lake Huron, so as to keep the English 
traders from passing up into the lakes that way. In 
1686 Du Lhut had been sent there, with fifty men. He 
built a stockade at the west side of the Detroit Strait, 
whence he led a mongrel band of French and Indians, 
the scrapings of western posts, to help Denonville chas- 
tise the Senecas, or rather to secure a foothold at Niag- 
ara, the real object of the campaign. 



INTER-OCEAN ROUTES 23 

The Senecas were driven from tlieir villages as we 
have seen. Denonville then sent La Hontan to relieve 
Du Lhut, at Detroit, but after wintering there, La Hon- 
tan set fire to his fort, upon hearing that Niagara had 
been abandoned. So this attempt proved a dismal fail- 
ure. 

Detroit (The Strait), on the spot where it now stands, 
was one of the first fruits of the peace of 1697, known as 
the peace of Ryswick. 

Almost immediately (1701), La Motte - Cadillac was 
ordered down from Michilimackinac to begin another 
establishment, at the narrows of the beautiful deep-flow- 
ing river, uniting Lake St. Clair with Lake Erie. Ca- 
dillac landed there on July 24:th, laid out the ground, and 
set his men to work building a fort against the winter. 
One early result was seen in the speedy desertion of 
Michilimackinac by the Indians, who mostly followed 
the French to this new abode. 

We have now very briefly reviewed about all that the 
French had done in the West, to the close of the seven- 
teenth century. 

INTER-OCEAN ROUTES 

By seizing Detroit the French got full control of the 
three great lakes from which the various inland routes 
branched off to the Mississippi. It is to these we must 
now turn. 

Mention has been made of the trading-post founded 
by La Salle on the Illinois, called The Rock, where the 
explorer had meant to gather a colony of his own. Un- 
fortunately he did not live to realize his hopes. After 
his untimely end, The Rock became a bone of contention 



24 



INTEK-OCEAN KOUTES 



between rival factions of traders, fell into neglect, and 
was finally deserted between the years 1718 and 1721. 

La ^ Salle's searching eye had quickly seen that the 
Illinois was destined to be the greatest thoroughfare of 
all. It Avas what might be called the direct route from 
the lake posts, by the west shore of Lake Michigan, to 
the Mississippi. Where the little river Chicago emptied 
into the lake, La Salle had unconsciously set foot on the 




THE SITE OF CHICAGO. 



destined metropolis of the Great West. When he was 
wearily trudging across the miry portage, stretching be- 
tween this river and the nearest branch of the Illinois, 
behind him loomed the locomotive.^ 

La Salle had first tried another route. This coasted 
the eastern shore of Lake Michigan to its southeast 
corner, where the river St. Joseph enters it. At this 
point, called by him The Miamis, from its lying in the 



INTER-OCEAN ROUTES 25 

country of that nation,^' La Salle had built a little fort, 
which went by this name also.^ He ascended this stream 
as far *as the site of South Bend, Indiana, whence his 
Indian guide ^ led the way across the five- mile portage 
to the Kankakee,^ where canoes were again launched, and 
the voyage to the Illinois resumed. 

These two trials fully established the Illinois as the 
main link between the lakes and the Mississippi. Be- 
tween the two, the country could be pretty cleanly swept 
of its peltries. 

Some years later, the French built a fort at the St. 
Joseph portage, called by them Fort St. Joseph.*^ It 
stood near the site of the city of Niles, Michigan. The 
Miamis and Pottawatomies lived here, in contiguous vil- 
lages, opposite to the fort, which presently assumed more 
importance in connection with still another route, now to 
be described. 

This avoided the long circuit through Lakes Huron and 
Michigan. At the extreme southwest corner of Lake 
Erie it entered the Maumee,' ascended that stream some 
ninety miles to its forks, whence a portage, varying from 
nine to thirty miles with the stage of water, led to a 
branch of the Wabash, and so on to the Ohio and Mis- 
sissippi. At this point the French built Fort Miami, 
this also being the country of the Miamis, for whom 
three important rivers thus take their names. This 
was the direct route between Detroit and the Southwest. 
Where the furtive canoe first glided into the still waters 
of the Maumee, the city of Toledo now stands ; and 
where Fort Miami stood, one sees the steeples of Fort 
Wayne. 

Last, but not least, the Green Bay route, by way of 
the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, struck the Mississippi too 



26 



INTER-OCEAN ROUTES 



liigli np for La Salle's purposes. It, however, became an 
important feeder, just as soon as the traders ventured to 
go among the Sioux, those fierce Arabs of the plains, who 
roamed the prairies bordering both banks of the great 
river. This they were certainly doing, from Lake b^upe- 
rior, as early as 1680, because Father Hennepin, who as- 
cended above the Falls of St. Anthony, in this very year, 
was rescued by some of these roving traders. 



1 The Chicago and i?ock Island Rail- 
way follows this route, in part. 

'•^ MiAMis, called in some acconufs 
Twightees, claimed all the country be- 
tween the Scioto and Wabash, from the 
Ohio to Detroit and Chicago, on the 
north. At the Treaty of Greenville, Lit- 
tle Turtle, a Miami chief, thus defined 
the boundaries : " It is well known by all 
my brothers present that my forefather 
kindled the first fire at Detroit : from 
thence he extended his lines to the head- 
waters of the Scioto ; from thence to its 
mouth ; from thence down the Ohio to 
the mouth of the Wabash; and from 
thence to Chicago, on Lake Michigan."— 
Am. State Papers, 1, 570. 

3 Fort Miami, of La Salle, at the shore 
of Lake Michigan, should not be con- 
founded with Fort St. Joseph, higher up 
the same river. Charlevoix speaks rather 
contemptuously of it as a "command- 
ant's house, surrounded by a poor pali- 
sade," adding that except Chambly and 
Catarocouy (Frontenac) "it is the same 
everywhere."— iii., 312. 



■» The Indian guide not being at hand, 
La Salle got lost looking for the path, 
which establishes the fact that the trail 
was an old one. 

^ Kankakee is called in all the early 
accounts and maps Theakiki ; I find the 
branch making the portage is laid down 
on one undated map, probably about 
1750, as Iroquois River. 

6 The St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, 
which makes a southerly bend into Indi- 
ana, must not be confounded with the 
St. Joseph's, a branch of the Maumee. 

' Maumee seems only another form of 
Miami. Confusion is inevitable unless it 
is borne in mind that this river runs its 
course partly in Indiana, while the Great 
and Little Miami have theirs wholly in 
Ohio. Sometimes called the Miami of 
the Lakes. The French Fort Miami, of 
this river (another source of confusion), 
is placed a little below where the St.' 
Mary's and St. Joseph's rivers unite to 
form the Maumee, and on the southern 
bank of this river.— MitcheWs Man of 
1755. *^ 



MIAMI AND POTTAWATOMIE VILLAGES 27 

A VISIT TO THE MIAMI AND POTTAWATOMIE VILLAGES 

(Of the St. Joseph) 

The villages mentioned in the previous chapter are 
thus described by Father Charlevoix, who visited them 
in August, 1721. "Imagine," he says, "amass of cab- 
ins without order or alignment, some like sheds, some 
like tunnels, built of bark, propped up by a few stones, 
sometimes covered in on the outside with mud, daubed 
on pretty thick ; in a word, constructed with less art, 
skill, or solidity than those of the beavers. These cabins 
are fifteen to twenty feet broad, and sometimes a hun- 
dred long. In that case, they have several fires, or a fire 
to every thirty feet or so. 

" When the ground floor is not large enough to furnish 
lodgings for all, the young men sleep on a sort of stage, 
raised five or six feet from the floor, all along the length 
of the cabin. The movables and provisions are hung 
above on poles, placed crosswise under the roof. These 
cabins have neither chimneys nor windows ; but they 
have a hole in the roof for the smoke to escape through, 
which must be closed up when it rains or snows, and the 
fire put out, unless they wish to be choked and blinded 
by smoke." 

Like one, like all. This description will therefore 
stand for each and every village we may have occasion 
to mention. Dirt, squalor, and filth were common to 
all. The visitor goes on to say that " The savages of 
these parts are naturally great thieves, who look upon 
everything they can pick up as lawful prize. It is true 
that should one perceive, in good season, that one has 



28 



MIAMI AND POTTAWATOMIE VILLAGES 



lost somethiug, it Avill be enougli to notify the chief of 
the tribe, when one is assured of finding it again. But it 
will be necessary to give this chief more than the value of 
the thing lost, and he will still ask you for some trifle to 
give the finder, who is probably no other than the thief 
himself. I myself was in this predicament from the day 
of my arrival, and they showed me no mercy." 

From this little story, which, by the way, all travellers 
indorse, it would seem that the Indians did not consider 




EARTHEN MOUNDS IN OUTLINE. 



stealing a breach of hospitality. It was not the theft it- 
self, but the being found out that grieved them. 

A little piece of formality, observed among the Miam- 
is, will serve to initiate us into their manner of receiving 
strangers, upon whom it was desired to make an impres- 
sion. The visitor says : 

" Some days after, I went to make a visit to the Mi- 
ami chief, who had sent word that I was ex23ected. He 
was a big, well-made man, badly disfigured by the loss of 
his nose, which they told me happened in some drunken 



A PRAIRIE PORTAGE 29 

carouse. "When he heard that I was coming, he planted 
himself, cross-legged, on a sort of low platform, at the 
bottom of his hut, after the manner of the Grand Turk, 
and there I found him. He talked little, and aj)peared 
much to affect a proud gravity, which, however, he car- 
ried off indifferently." 

The pious father also gives us an interesting account of 
some games he witnessed here, among the Miamis, all of 
which helps us to an insight of their way of life. Thus 
he begins : 

" This day the Pottawatomies were come to play the 
game of straws with the Miamis. The game was played 
in the chief's cabin and on the open ground before it. 
The straws used are little twigs of the bigness of a wheat 
stalk, and no more than two inches long. They take a 
bunch of these, generally containing a hundred and one 
straws, but always an odd number. After giving them a 
good mixing up, with many contortions of their bodies and 
many invocations of their favorite genii, the whole are 
divided into packets of ten, with a sort of awl or pointed 
bone. Every one takes his packet at hazard, and the one 
who gets the eleven straws gains a certain number of 
points. Sixty or eighty play the game at a time." 



A PRAIRIE PORTAGE 



A MONK, who is making the long journey from Michili- 
mackinac to New Orleans, is writing to a certain duchess, 
who is probably at that hour fast asleep in her chamber 
at Paris. Let us follow him : 

" I believe I let you know in my last that there was a 
choice of two routes open to me, in going to the Illinois. 



30 A PRAIRIE PORTAGE 

The first would be to go back to Lake Michigan, coast the 
southern shore, and then ascend the little Chicago River. 
After going up for five or six leagues, one j^asses into the 
Illinois by means of two portages, the longest being no 
more than a league and a quarter over. But as this 
river is yet only a brook at this place, they told me that 
at this time of year I would not find water enough there 
to float my canoe. So, I have taken the other route, 
which also has its inconveniences, and is not nearly as 
agreeable, but is more sure. 

" Yesterday I set out from the fort of the St. Joseph, 
and I ascended this river about six leagues. I then went 
ashore at the right, w^alked a league and a quarter, at first 
along the river bank, then across country in an immense 
prairie, all sowed over with little clumps of trees, which 
give it a very beautiful effect. This is called the Bulls 
Head Prairie, because they found there once the skull of 
a bull of immense size. And why should there not be 
also giants among the animals? I camped at a very 
pretty spot called the Foxes Fort, because the Foxes, 
that is to say the Outagamis, had there, not long ago, a 
village fortified in their manner. 

" This morning I have again travelled a league of prai- 
rie, with my feet almost always in the water ; then I 
came to a sort of bog, which communicated with several 
others of different sizes, the largest not being a hun- 
dred paces round. These are the springs of a river 
called Theakiki, which our Canadians have corrupted 
into Kiakiki (Kankakee). Tlieak means a w^olf, I do 
not recollect in what language, but this river bears this 
name because the Mahingans, who are also called Wolves, 
took refuge here in days gone by. 

" We put our canoe, which two men carried up to this 



FRENCH ON" THE MISSISSIPPI AND WABASH 31 

time, in the second of the sources, and all got into it, 
but there was hardly water enough to float us. Ten men 
could make in two days a canal here, straight and navi- 
gable, which would save a great deal of trouble, and ten 
or twelve leagues of road, for the river, at its source, is so 
narrow, and it is necessary continually to make such 
short turns, that one risks staving his canoe every in- 
stant, as has just happened to us. 

"During the following days Ave paddled steadily on 
from morning till night, always favored by the current, 
which is quite strong, and sometimes, also, by the wind. 
In fact we went over a good deal of ground, though actu- 
ally making very little progress, since at the end of ten or 
twelve leagues we would find ourselves so near our last 
camp that we might be seen and even heard from one to 
the other, at least with a speaking-trumpet." 



THE FRENCH ON THE MISSISSIPPI AND THE WABASH, 

1718 

Early in the eighteenth century, a group of settlements 
sprung up on the banks of the Mississippi, destined to 
build greater than they knew. It was most advan- 
tageously planted, where traders, going or coming be- 
tween Canada and the Gulf of Mexico, might call for 
supplies or rest from their fatigues ; yet its remoteness 
made the attempt a bold one. 

As we have already seen, La Salle's discoveries had 
led to his naming all the boundless regions drained by 
the Mississippi, Louisiana. In those days a discovery 
of the main course of a river extended to every foot of 
country it watered ; so that Louisiana really included 



32 FRENCH ON THE MISSISSIPPI AND WABASH 

an empire more vast than La Salle had even dreamed 
of, enthusiast as he was. 

The first steps toward taking possession of Louisiana 
— slow and feeble steps they were, too — came from the 
Gulf coast, gradually working their way up from Biloxi 
to New Orleans, founded in 1718 by Bienville ; then ad- 
vancing to Natchez and the Arkansas. The trade, how- 
ever, had been farmed out, first to Anthony Crozat, then 
to John Law,^ whose gigantic schemes and no less 
gigantic failures are known to history as the Missis- 
sippi Bubble. 

However, an impression had been made at one end 
of the line. If, now, a like beginning should be made at 
the other end, the work of colonizing would go on twice 
as fast. But to do this effectively it would be neces- 
sary to draw upon Canada, both for recruits and mu- 
nitions, that colony being so much more easily reached 
through its western posts, as well as so much more 
populous. 

It should be borne in mind that, from its first found- 
ing, Louisiana had been set off from Canada, or rather 
from the all-embracing New France,^ to be a colony by 
itself, under rulers of its own. To colonies so remote 
a political separation was, indeed, imperatively de- 
manded. But together they now held command of the 
great waterway of the continent, as the lamented La 
Salle had foreseen— indeed predicted. 

Meantime (1717), all the Illinois country had been 
added to Louisiana, as legitimately belonging to it, 
rather than to Canada, and a local governor sent there 
the very next year with men to begin the usual fort. 
The boundaries of this government were, some years 
later, fixed along the highlands of the Wabash, to which 



FRENCH ON THE MISSISSIPPI AND WABASH 33 



the French gave the so-descriptive name of Terre Hante,-^ 
from which that of one of Indiana\s most prosperous 
cities is taken. 

Placed thus midway between Montreal and New Orle- 
ans, it was most essential that this Illinois colony should 
be made self-sustaining, in part at least — should be pro- 
ducers as well as consumers.^ The choice of a location 
was, therefore, all-important, as this condition was un- 
usual to such undertakings, so far. Indeed, it seems to 




FRENCH SETTLEMENTS OP ILLINOIS. 



point to the dawning of a new era in French coloniza- 
tion enterprises, and was, no doubt, so regarded. 

Where and what was this land of new promise and 
new fortunes ? 

There is found, bordering the eastern shore of the 
great river, like embroidery the hem of a rich mantle, 
a strip of land from three to six miles wide and eighty 
long, quite level, and of astonishing fertility. In fact, 
there are tAvo levels. The low level, next the Missis- 
sippi, is always found heavily fringed with forests of 
3 



34 FRENCH ON THE MISSISSIPPI AND WABASH 

Cottonwood, hickory, walnut, and oak ; behind this a 
second level, everywhere open to light and sunshine, 
extends quite up to the outcropping limestone bluffs 
bounding it at the east. This beautiful tract, since 
known as the American Bottom,^ begins nearly opposite 
the Missouri, extending thence southward along the 
shores. The early explorers were not far wrong in think- 
ing it might be made the granary of all Louisiana. 

Here, then, where bountiful nature rewarded the fee- 
blest and most crude husbandry with, plenteous harvests, 
the Kaskaskias, Cahokias and Tamaroas, fugitives from 
their old homes on the Illinois, true to their instincts for 
picking out the choicest lands, had planted themselves 
anew since the year 1700. 

These villages became the seed of a second growth of 
French settlements, which took to themselves the tribal 
names, already established. The first thing done was to 
choose a site for the new fortress, which was meant to be 
as strong as its lonely situation demanded. It w^as 
found (1718) at a point a musket-shot off the river, about 
sixteen miles above Kaskaskia. In two years it was 
completed, and named Fort Chartres," for one of the 
royal princes. 

The traders, however, had been regular visitors here 
for many years. 

Fraternizing with the savages, as was their wont, these 
ubiquitous traders quickly set up their bark wigwams, 
threw open their packs, and spread out their trinkets to 
catch the trade passing up or down the Mississippi, or in 
and out of the Missouri — puny, but sure, forerunner of 
that great metropolis which has since risen, as if by 
magic, on the opposite bank. 

Another strong motive was attracting men to this far 



FRENCH ON THE MISSISSIPPI AND WABASH 



region. None, indeed, could well be stronger. New Or- 
leans had just been founded. The notorious John Law, 
of Edinburgh, had just begun turning the wisest heads of 
Europe — crowned heads and all — wdth his tales of un- 
told riches lying hid in the virgin soil of the Mississippi. 
Capital only, he said, was needful to enrich everyone 
who should invest in his scheme. So everyone hastened 
to invest. No stories were too extravagant to be greedily 
swallowed. N o 
time is too en- 
lightened to be 
led away by its 
own credulity. 
Men saw another 
Mexico rising in 
the West, were 
dazzled, duped, 
and ruined by 
thousands and 
tens o f thou- 
sands. 

As a conse- 
quence, since 
the year 1719 
the French had 
been searching for silver mines on the Meramec, a small 
river which falls into the Mississippi, not far below the 
Missouri, and on the same side. And when Father 
Charlevoix, the Jesuit historian, descended the Missis- 
sippi in 1721 he found some miners hard at work there, 
under the authority of Law's Company. It was while 
searching for silver that these miners struck a vein of 
galena ore, which from that time on began to be a real 




JOHN LAW. 



36 FRENCH ON THE MISSISSIPPI AND WABASH 

source of wealth to the province, the product mostly go- 
ing clown the river, to New Orleans. The village of 8t. 
Philip, on the Illinois side, was founded by these miners, 
among whom were some slaves, thus introducing slavery 
into what later became the State of Illinois. 

The same observing writer shall describe for us the 
Kaskaskias villages. He first gives an account of the 
Cahokias and Tamaroas, with whom two missionaries, 
from the Seminary of Quebec, were then residing. These 
two tribes, being weak in numbers, had united to form 
one village. 

" Cahokia," he says, " is situated upon a little river, 
coming from the east, which is dry except in spring, so 
that w^e had to travel a good half league to reach the 
cabins. I was much astonished at the choice of such an 
inconvenient situation, until told that Avhen the village 
was first built the Mississippi washed the foot of it ; but 
in three years it had receded to where I saw it. The 
natives -were then thinking about looking up another 
place ; no great affair for them, as we know." 

From here the good father went to the Kaskaskias vil- 
lages, lying on the tongue of land formed between the 
Kaskaskia and the Mississippi. Of them he says : " The 
Jesuits have here a very flourishing mission, which must 
shortly be divided, because two villages have been made 
out of one. The most populous is on the bank of the 
Mississippi. Fort Chartres stands half a league lower 
down, a musket-shot off the river. M. Dugue de Bois- 
briant, Canadian gentleman, commands here for the com- 
pany to whom the place belongs ; and all between fort and 
village begins to be peopled by French. Four leagues 
farther, at one league from the river, there is a big French 
village, almost all Canadians. The second Illinois village 



E^HENCH on the MISSISSIPPI AND WABASH 37 

is two leagues from it and farther inland. A fourth Jes- 
uit is in charge here. 

" The French are A^ery much at their ease here. A 
Fleming, servant to the Jesuits, has taught them to sow 
wheat, which comes forward very well. They have 
horned cattle and fowls. The Illinois cultivate the 
ground after their own manner, which is very laborious. 
They also raise fowls, which they sell to the French. 
Their women are very skilful in many ways. They spin 
stuffs from the hair of cattle, which, after dyeing in 
bright colors, they make into robes." 

The impulse given by these new settlements reached 
out beyond them, and was quickly and widely felt. Just 
how long traders had been crossing the Maumee portage 
to the Miami villages, on the upper Wabash, is not 
known. But since this region had been tapped, and it 
was seen how a new and short route to the Mississippi, 
offering more profitable ventures by the way, bared its 
bright patliAvay to the infant commerce of the West, put- 
ting it to use became a foregone conclusion. 

" First in order, probably about 1720, came the build- 
ing of Fort Ouatenon (AVah-te-non), on the north bank 
of the Wabash, eight miles below the city of Lafa^^ette, 
Ind., whence a trail led through the forest to Fort Mi- 
ami, on the Maumee. 

At this place the river, broken into rapids, made a 
portage necessary, thus fixing the site by physical laws, 
besides dividing the navigation between canoes above 
and pirogues or dugouts beloAV. Strange to say, as to 
the beginnings of these Indiana posts all is obscure, 
though Ouatenon is thought to be the first b}' many 
years. 

Next in order Yincennes arose,' lower down the Wa- 



38 FRENCH ON THE MISSISSIPPI AND WABASH 

bash, on its eastern bank, and on ground finely overlook- 
ing the broad and fertile bottom lands, frequently inun- 
dated for miles by the spring freshets. It was first de- 
signed as a check to the English traders on the Ohio, to 
which river it broke the long journey from above. And 
from here communication was opened with the Illinois 
settlements around Fort Chartres, for Avhich, indeed, Yin- 
cennes was the lonely outpost. Its establishment is as- 
signed not earlier than the year 1727, and perhaps even 
as late as 1730. 



1 John Law's Mississippi scheme is 
treated of in The Making of the Great 
West, p. 130, note. 

2 New France was the general name 
for all the French possessions on this 
continent, disused as the political divis- 
ions grew up, like Acadia, Canada, and 
Louisiana, until it became obsolete. 

3 Terre Haute, French for highland. 
< The Founders of Louisiana paid 

more attention to agriculture, conse- 
quently to the bringing in of actual set- 
tlers, than the founders of Canada did. 

s American Bottom, Though once so 
familiar, this name has long been lost, 
except to the older generation, in the 
thickly-sown settlements opposite St. 
Louis and that vicinity. A more inter- 
esting piece of ground in history, archae- 
ology, or physical traits would be hard 
to find in the West. 

* Fort Chartres was no rude, stock- 
aded block-house, hke those already dot- 
ting the route to Canada, but a work em- 



bodying a larger plan of defence, greater 
skill, and much greater outlay. Charle- 
voix says it stood at a musket-shot from 
the river. When Long visited it in Au- 
gust, 1819, it was a fourth of a mile from 
the river, and in ruins, having first been 
undermined by the washing of the river, 
which again had formed a new bank of 
the soils brought down by the annual 
rise. Long puts the cost of Fort Char- 
tres at a million and a half of dollars — 
probably too high. Long's Expedition 1, 
147. Since the time of Louis XIII., the 
title Due de Chartres has been heredi- 
tary in the Orleans family. 

■^ ViNCENNEs, named for Jean Baptiste 
Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes, killed in an 
expedition against the Chickasaws, May, 
1736. It stands at the Wabash crossing 
of the Ohio and Mississippi Railway. 
No record of its founding has yet come 
to light. The date given in the text is 
an approximation from what is attaina- 
ble. 



VIRGINIA MOVES TO THE OHIO, 1749 39 

VIRGINIA MOVES TO THE OHIO, 1749 

The Ohio Company, and what Came of it 

We have now shown, as briefly as Ave well could, what 
the French had been doing in the West for half a cen- 
tury or more. In thus reaching out into so many odd 
corners, they must have greatly relied upon the good 
will of the natives, since to be so widely scattered was 
plainly to invite attack. To do the French justice, the 
Indians always found them better masters than the Eng- 
lish. We are not now explaining ; we are only relating 
a fact. For casual traders the Indians did not much 
care, but for permanent settlers they felt great jealousy, 
as well they might. 

Statesmen had often said that the two races, rivals 
everywhere on the face of the earth, could not and 
would not long live together in peace on the same conti- 
nent. Sooner or later the struggle was sure to come. 
No continent was big enough for both. They were right. 
Old antipathies, old traditions, old rivalries had taught 
an Englishman always to look upon a Frenchman as his 
natural enemy. This state of feeling Avas like the em- 
bers which a breath suffices to fan into a flame. To gain 
a continent was, it is true, a great object, but when we 
come to know Iioav this was done, it is seen Avhat little 
things sometimes SAvay the affairs of men. 

In the English colonies the presence of the French 
west of the Alleghanies was considered a trespass of one 
nation upon another's land, because some of the colony 
charters ran to the Pacific. Virginia's was so bounded ; 
so Avas Connecticut's. The popular notion Avas that hav- 



40 VIRGINIA MOVES TO THE OHIO, 1749 

ing thus slipped themselves into what did not belong to 
them, the French ought to be turned out neck and heels. 
And there was a vague feeling abroad that some day this 
would have to be done. 

Still, so long as there was so much vacant land east of 
the Alleghanies, people cared less about this question of 
sovereignty than they would if the future of the impe- 
rial West could have been revealed to them — much less. 
But the man bold enough to predict that, in another 
century, the Ohio valley would be the home of millions 
of men, had not yet been born. Less indeed was known 
of it tlian is known about the farthest corners of the earth 
to-day. That far-off country was looked upon as the 
predestined home of savage hordes, against whom the 
Alleghanies lifted their lofty summits as a protecting 
wall. 

Traders and land speculators were here a direct means 
of drawing England and France into a quarrel, before 
either was really ready for it. 

Old treaties gave to traders of both nations the right 
freely to come and go among the western tribes. They 
were, however, a class of men who paid little attention 
to such things as treaties ; still less to the rights of other 
men. The French traders we know already. The Eng- 
lish " were often rough, lawless men ; half Indians in 
dress and habits ; prone to brawls, and sometimes deadly 
in their feuds. They were generally in the employ of 
some chief trader, who, at the head of his retainers and 
pack-horses, would make his way over mountains and 
through forests to the banks of the Ohio, establish his 
head-quarters in some Indian town, and disperse his 
followers to traffic among the hamlets, hunting-camps, 
and wigwams, exchanging blankets, gaudy-colored cloth. 



VIRGINIA MOVES TO THE OHIO, 1749 41 

tiiiiketry, powder, shot, and rum for valuable furs and 
peltry/' ^ 

This was all the commerce of the Great West one 
hundred and lifty years ago. On the part of the Eng- 
lish, it was being monopolized by the Pennsylvanians. 
Let us first foUoAV their adventurous excursions. 

The route to the Ohio first used by the Indians of 
Pennsylvania, then by the traders, led from the Juniata 
across the Alleghanies to the Alleghany River. As fast 
as the whites moved up from the coast the Indians fell 
back before them, so that in about fifty years the advanc- 
ing whites had pushed the Delawares and Shawnees quite 
over the mountains into the Ohio valley. The English 
traders had followed them to their new homes, and they 
were still considered friendly to English interests. Their 
new villages lay on the Scioto and Muskingum, ~ with 
trails running off through the forests to the Miami and 
Pottawatomie towns along the divide. We are thus able 
to locate the Indian populations of Ohio with approxi- 
mate fidelity. 

Scattered bands of both these nations had lingered 
along the course of the Alleghany, as if reluctant to leave 
the graves of their fathers. With some migratory Iro- 
quois, they now formed a sort of connecting link between 
the Ohio tribes and that great confederacy whose adhe- 
rents they were. Though nominally friendly, the belief 
that they had been cheated of their lands still rankled in 
the breasts of many. 

if, now, we look at what seems the natural course of 
things, the Ohio valley seems most tributary to the Eng- 
lish, inasmuch as its two great branches spring from the 
western gorges of the Alleghanies, so making them natu- 
ral routes, the one from Pennsylvania, the other from 



42 VIRGINIA MOVES TO THE OHIO, 1749 

Yirginia and Maryland. The Pennsylvania traders quite 
early apj)ropriated the Alleghany to their own use, while 
the Virginians as naturally took to the Monongahela. 
As these two very divergent routes came together at last, 
it was not long before a strong rivalry grew up between 
the rival traders — a dangerous rivalry, too, as it proved, 
to all but the French. 

Since the lakes were their great natural route to the 
sea, the French had first planted themselves along the 
divide separating the waters flowing to the lakes and to 
the Ohio, thinking it easier, perhaps, thus to draw that 
trade up to them than attempt to occupy all that vast 
valley themselves. They had thus left that door open. 
But when the English traders began to carry their wares 
to the heads of the Muskingum, the Scioto, and the Mi- 
ami, as they did after the year 1747, the French saw at 
once that the Ohio was lost to them, unless they did oc- 
cupy it, and war was the result. 

The story is soon told. Alarmed at the foothold the 
English were getting among them, the Governor of Can- 
ada, in the summer of 1749, sent Celoron (Say-lo-ron) de 
Bienville to warn them away. He was also instructed to 
reaflirm French sovereignty over the Ohio valley. 

Celoron's expedition reached the Alleghany by way of 
Niagara and Lake Chautauqua. Here began the comedy 
of taking formal possession of what they said was theirs 
already, in the old pompous feudal way. A plate of 
lead, with an inscription setting forth this act, was buried 
at the foot of a tree with the greatest solemnity. An- 
other was deposited four leagues below French Creek; 
and as they went on, always haranguing the Indians, who 
watched all these proceedings sharply and suspiciously, 
similar plates were buried at the mouths of Wheeling 



VIRGINIA MOVES TO THE OHIO, 1749 43 

Creek, the Muskingum, Great Kanawha, and Miami, so 
affirming control of all the chief feeders of the Beautiful 
Eiver, as the French loved to call it,^ by putting the 
proofs out of sight. 

This party then made its way home by way of the 
Great Miami, and across the long Maumee portage to 
Lake Erie. 

To Celoron's deep disgust, wherever he went, even to 
the head of the Miami itself, he found one or more 
English traders, whom the Indians had received with 
open arms because they undersold the French. At 
Logstown ^ he found ten. These were all warned off. 
The same thing occurred at Scioto, and again at Piqua,'^ 
one hundred and fifty miles up the Miami, where these 
intruders had actually built a trading-house, and hoisted 
the English flag over it. 

Meantime (1749), some influential Virginians, two of 
whom were brothers of George Washington, secured a 
grant of 500,000 acres of land on the Ohio, between 
the Monongahela and Great Kanawha, with the declared 
purpose of settling it with white people. These asso- 
ciates called themselves The Ohio Company.' One hun- 
dred families were to be located on the tract Avithin seven 
years, a fort built, and a garrison maintained for their 
protection. 

As this project was set on foot by Virginians for the 
benefit of that colony, a trading-house was begun at 
Wills' Creek,' a branch of the Potomac nearest the Yough- 
iogheny, a branch of the Ohio, whence a wagon-road 
was to cross the intervening mountain ridge. Opposi- 
tion being expected from the French, and more than 
feared from the Indians, great secrecy was observed with 
regard to the company's intentions. 



44 VIRGINIA MOVES TO THE OHIO, 1749 

While the perambulating traders were only a cause of 
irritation to the French, this scheme struck at the very 
root of their alleged sovereignty, and was so regarded. 
Furthermore, the home government had promised its 
protection in case of need. 

Clmstopher Gist,^ a hardy pioneer, was despatched 
(1750) across the mountains to look up and locate the 
best lands for the company. Gist first went among the 
tribes north of the Ohio, who told him that, " If the 
French claim the rivers which run into the lakes, then 
those which run into the Ohio belong to us and our 
brothers the English." They, however, tried in every 
way to dissuade him from going down the river. But 
Gist would not turn back. With great caution he made 
his way to within a few miles of the Falls,^ when some 
distant gunshots warned him that to go farther would be 
dangerous. He, therefore, prudently turned back to the 
Kentucky River. " From the top of a mountain in the 
vicinity, he had a view to the southwest, as far as the eye 
could reach, over a vast woodland country in the fresh 
garniture of spring, and watered by abundant streams, 
but as yet only the hunting-ground of savage tribes and 
the scenes of their sanguinary combats. In a word, 
half Kentucky lay spread out before him in all its wild 
magnificence." 

Again, the next year (1751), Gist made a survey of 
the company's lands as far down as the Great Kanawha. 
One day, while thus employed, an old Delaware Indian 
thus accosted him: "Brother," said he, "the French 
claim all the land on one side of the Ohio, the English 
claim all on the other side — now where does the Indians' 
land lie ? " 

Though so much pains were taken to keep it a secret 



VIRGINIA MOVES TO THE OHIO, 1749 



45 



the French soon found out what was going on, and 
promptly moved to defeat it. Here nature remarkably 
befriended them. One of the head streams of the Ohio 
reached to within fifteen miles of Lake Erie. To unite 
Lake Erie with the 
Ohio by a chain of mil- 
itary posts, similar to 
those already estab- 
lished at the West, 
would have the effect 
either to turn the Eng- 
lish back, or bring on 
^ collision, w^hich the 
French said they were 
ready for, if the Eng- 
lish were not. 

Governor D u - 
quesne ^° therefore sent 
an expedition in the 
spring of 1753 to seize 
the above indicated 
route. This party land- 
ed at Presquisle,^^ now 
Erie, ^vhere a fort of 
logs was soon made 
ready for those who 
were to occupy it. 
This was to be their 
depot or base. From 
here a road five leagues long was cut through the forest to 
the head of French Creek, down which, in the season of 
high water, a canoe would float to the Alleghany, and so 
on to the Ohio. At the end of this portage a second fort, 




FRENCH MILITART LINE, LAKE ERIE TO THE 
OHIO, 1755. 



46 VIRGINIA MOVES TO THE OHIO, 1749 

called Le Boeuf, was built. A third was to have com- 
pleted the chain, at the old Indian town of Venango ; ^'^ 
but owing to the exhaustion of the party, worn down by 
its labors, this could not be built before winter set in. 
The main purpose was, however, for the present secured 
by seizing the house of John Fraser,^^ an English trader, 
and turning that into a temporary garrison. 

As this new route between the Ohio and the lakes had 
been seized in defiance of the local tribes, they w^ere very 
indignant. But when they protested against it, the 
French commandant mocked them with these bitter 
words : " Child," said he, " you talk foolishly. You say 
this land belongs to you ; there is not the black of my nail 
yours. It is my land, and I will have it, let who will stand 
up against me. I am not afraid of flies and mosquitoes, for 
as such I consider the Indians. I tell you that down the 
river I will go, and build upon it. If it were blocked up, 
I have forces sufficient to burst it open, and trample down 
all who oppose me. My force is as the sands upon the 
seashore. Here is your wampum ; I fling it at you." 

Such energetic measures as these simply amazed the 
slow-moving Pennsylvanians and Yirginians. Governor 
Dinwiddle was especially indignant, since the invaded 
territory was claimed by Virginia. It seemed to him 
that not an hour should be lost in cutting off the French 
from the Ohio, before they could make their threatened 
descent in the spring. And this might yet be done by 
building a fort at the junction of the Alleghany and 
Monongahela rivers. The governor was quite right. Un- 
less this was done, farewell to the hopes and schemes of 
the Ohio Company, farewell to the profitable trips of the 
English traders ! The Alleghanies would indeed have 
become an impassable barrier. 



VIRGINIA MOVES TO THE OHIO, 1749 



47 



Before taking any decisive steps, it was thought best 
to go through with the empty form of warning off these 
impudent intruders. This would make a national ques- 
tion of it. A pompous summons to depart was, there- 
fore, drawn up. The next thing was to find a messenger. 
Governor Dinwiddle looked well about him. His choice 
fell upon George Washington, a young Virginia planter 
wholly unknown to fame, but who had seen something of 
the hardships of frontier life, as well as tasted of its 
wondrous fascinations. Thackeray calls him " a road 
surveyor ^^ at a guinea a day." The situation and 
strength of these new posts being but imperfectly known, 
Washington was enjoined to made good use of his eyes 
and ears. The young soldier promptly accepted the 
trust, though its execution promised to be no easy task, 
and on October 30, 1753, he set out from Williamsburg 
for the far frontier and an undying fame. 



1 Irving's Washington is here quoted. 

2 Both Delawares and Shawnees were 
allotted this location by their masters, 
the Iroquois. The Shawnees' chief town 
was where Portsmouth now is, with a 
suburb, across the Ohio, on the Ken- 
tucky shore. From here a trail led north- 
west 150 miles, to Piqua, or Pickawillany, 
the Miami town — see note 5. This was 
Gist's route in 1750. The Delawares ap- 
pear to have stretched themselves out, 
across the country, between the Scioto 
and Muskingum, the Shawnees doing the 
same low^r down, next the Ohio, Be- 
sides these the Wyandots had a village 
at the mouth of the Muskingum. 

3 One of the buried plates, found near 
Marietta, is now in the cabinet of the 
American Antiquarian Society. That 
buried at the Great Kanawha also came 
to light. 

* LoGSTowN is located on Mitchell's 
Map (1755) a few miles below Pittsburg, 
on the north bank of the Ohio. It was a 



rendezvous for Pennsylvania traders, of 
rather evil reputation. 

•^ Piqua, or Pickawillany, was sacked 
by hostile Indians, under Langlade, in 
1752, and some of the English traders 
there carried oft as captives. 

^ The Ohio Company. Marshall {Life 
of Washington) says it was the Ohio 
Company that brought on the war. It 
did little else. The company had full 
power to take lands either north or south 
of the Ohio, or as far down as they Uked. 

^ Wills' Creek, now Cumberland, was 
then, and after, a strategic point, on ac- 
count of the mountain gap by which the 
route was shortened to the tributaries 
of the Monongahela. This indicates its 
importance as a starting-point. 

^ Christopher Gist was living on the 
Yadkin when called to this work. Later 
on, but before war broke out, he settled 
in the valley beyond the Laurel Ridge, 
Pa., near the crossing of the Youghio- 
gheny. Eleven families joined him here. 



48 THE BUILDING OF FORT DUQUFSNF". 

9 The Falls, now Louisville, Ky. ^ ^ John Fraser, trader and gunsmith, 

1° DuQUESNE, Marquis, succeeded La then went to the mouth of Turtle Creek 

Jonquiere as governor, at the latter's on the Monongahela. His house figures 

death. in Braddock's battle. 

11 Presquisle, two French words i< Between 1770 and 1772 Washington 
meaning a peninsula ; literally, almost an made two surveys in the northeast cor- 
island, ner of Kentucky, in Greenup, Boyd, and 

12 Venango, now Franklin, Pa. Lawrence counties. 



THE BUILDING OF FORT DUQUESNE 

When young George Washington rode out of Win- 
chester, proud of being intrusted with a mission so im- 
portant, he was turning his back upon the frontier 
settlement of Yirginia. He and his half dozen hardy 
companions Avere all well mounted, their baggage was 
strapped to the backs of pack-horses, driven before them 
along the one narrow path then joining the valley of 
the Potomac with the valley of the Ohio. Only by a 
free use of their hatchets could this blind and rugged 
trail be made broad enough for the little cavalcade to 
pass over it. Often they would have to dismount to 
drag their balky animals on by the bit, or to tighten 
their girths, as through sticky bogs or wiry thickets 
they forced their way onward. 

By just such little details do we realize the fact that, 
no longer than one hundred and forty 3^ears ago, the 
West really began at the eastern foot of the Alleghanies. 

The route lay first up the Potomac to Wills' Creek, 
where the faithful woodsman, Gist, joined them as guide, 
thence out over the mountain ridge to the Youghiogheny, 
and down that stream to its mouth. Thus are the rivers 
ever the first engineers. 

This long stretch of wilderness was safely passed. 
Upon reaching the Ohio, Washington did not fail to 



THE BUILDING OF FORT DUQUESNE 



49 



note the cojiimanding position formed at tlie meeting of 
the Alleghany and Monongahela, then crowned by a leaf- 
less forest. A little way down the Ohio there was a col- 
lection of huts, where Indians and traders from over the 
mountains met to barter skins for goods, or hold their 
carousals. It was aptly called Logstown. To this place 
Washington now hastened. 

Here he was to make his fii*st essay as a negotiator. 




WASHINGTON IN THE WILDS OF PENNSYLVANIA, 



So the neighbor tribes were called in council. Washing- 
ton let them know his errand, sought to secure their 
friendship, and asked for guides to the first French fort, 
whose position he only kneAV from hearsay. 

He found them smooth of speech, but chary of deeds. 
Finally three, and no more, set out with him for the fort. 

In five days they reached Venango, Avhence John 
Fraser, now with Washington, had been driven away 
4 



50 THE BUILDING OF FORT DUQUESNE 

shortly before. The French flag was now flying over 
Eraser's house. Upon learning AVashington's business 
there, he was told that he must go on to the next fort, 
where he would find the oflicer in chief command. 

Four more tedious days were spent in getting to Fort 
Le Boeuf, at the portage, where the Virginian envoy was 
welcomed with studied politeness by Legardeur St. 
Pierre, the commandant. To him Washington handed 
Governor Dinwiddle's despatch. 

After being kept waiting some days — days improved 
by storing his mind with every detail of the fort — Wash- 
ington was dismissed with a sealed reply, with which he 
set out on his return. 

Winter had now set in. The Alleghany was filled 
with floating ice, which threatened to crush their frail 
canoes like egg-shells. Often they would have to jump 
into the ice-cold water to lift them over some perilous 
shallow. Once they found their way blocked by an ice- 
gorge, extending from bank to bank, so that the canoes 
had to be carried through the woods, till open water was 
found again. 

After leaving Venango, the party journeyed on foot, 
to save their jaded animals, Washington shouldering 
rifle and pack like the rest, and all trudged wearily on, 
through the deep snow, with only some distant peak to 
guide them. 

Finding the march could not be hastened, Washington 
took Gist with him, bade the lagging cavalcade push on 
as fast as possible, and these two then struck boldly out 
through the woods for the forks of the Ohio. 

They had plenty of adventures by the way. At one 
time Washington narrowly missed being shot by an 
Indian, who was treacherously leading them astray. At 



THE BUILDING OF FORT DUQUESNE 



51 



another Gist came near being frozen to death, at one of 
their cheerless bivouacs without fire or shelter. At last 
they came out of the woods, on the banks of the Al- 
leghany. The stream must be crossed. With their only 
hatchet they built a raft, on which they pushed out 
upon the dark-flowing river. Swift and strong ran the 
current. For a time they forced their way on through 
the floating ice, Avith the aid of setting-poles. Sud- 
denly, when half- 
way across, the 
crazy, ill-built raft 
stuck fast in an 
ice -jam and the 
luckless naviga- 
tors had to aban- 
don it in haste. 
Fortunately, they 
had stranded near 
an island, which 
they succeeded in 
reaching, half 
dead and wet to 
the skin. This 
night Gist's hands 
and feet were 
badly frozen. The next luckily brought them to Fraser s 
house, on the Monongahela. 

Beyond here a pack-train was met, laden with ma- 
terials for building a new fort at the forks of the Ohio. 
With it were a few families, going to settle there. 

Washington reached Winchester without further ad- 
ventures. The French commandant had answered that 
he should continue to hold the countrv, until ordered out 




FORT DUQUESNE. 



52 THE BUILDING OF FORT DUQUESNE 

of it by his own superiors. And that was all the English 
got for their pains. 

In the spring, the French came down the Alleghany, 
as they said they would, turned out the Virginians from 
their half- built fort, and sent them home, with a warning 
not to be found there again. They then raised their own 
flag over the work, now named by them Fort Duquesne. 
Again, they had been too quick for the slow-moving 
English. Their new line was completed. 

Meantime, Washington had started off again, with a 
small body of Virginians, to strengthen this fort, but at 
Wills' Creek he learned what had happened from the 
ejected builders, who came straggling in there from 
across the mountains. 

His next step was impulsively taken. But we must 
remember that he was as yet an untried soldier, smarting 
under the sense of defeat. Without waiting for orders, 
he determined to take up a more advanced position, 
where he could perhaps strike the French to advantage, 
or at any rate keep an eye upon them. After getting 
well on toward Fort Duquesne, he heard that the French 
were also out looking for him. Washington marched to 
meet them. Having tracked them to their camp, his 
men rushed to the attack, killing or taking the whole de- 
tachment, including the leader, who Avas shot down at 
the first Are. 

Not doubting that he would soon be attacked in his 
turn, Washington now fell back to the Great Meadows, 
where he hurriedly fortified his camp as well as he 
could with pickets and a ditch. His provisions being 
spent, he was in danger of being starved, even before he 
was attacked, and on this account the place was called 
Fort Necessity. 



THE BUILDING OF FORT DUQUESNE 53 

Washington's fears were fully realized when, on July 
3, 1754, his pickets were driven in, firing began all 
around the camp, and all signs showed that he was sur- 
rounded by a very superior force. 

After skirmishing all day, in a pouring rain, and find- 
ing he could hold out no longer, AVashington agreed to 
give up the post, on condition of being allowed to march 
out immolested. It thus fell out that the building of 
a log fort to command the Ohio had brought on actual 
war. The struggle for the possession of the Great West 
now passed from words to deeds. But with their un- 
broken chain of posts, their depots so conveniently 
placed, their Indian alliances so secured by the prestige 
of a first success, the French entered upon the conflict 
with strong advantage. 

" It was strange," says Thackeray, " that in a savage 
forest of Pennsylvania a young Virginian oflicer should 
fire a shot, and waken up a war which was to last for 
sixty years, which was to cover his own country and pass 
into Europe, to cost France her American colonies, to 
sever ours from us, and create the great Western repub- 
lic, to rage over the Old World when extinguished in 
tlie New, and of all the myriads engaged in the vast 
contest to leave the prize of the greatest fame with him 
who struck the first blow." 




JOIN or 



The above picture, with its warning words, was printed i 
in the Pennsylvania Gazette, after news of the taking of 
Duquesne reached Phihidelphia. Cut and motto were 
Benjamin Franklin's, and together they put the whole 
situation in the colonies in a nutshell. Everybody 
could understand the picture ; all feel the warning. 
But England could not, or would not, understand why j 
her colonies, which were to the French as ten to one, 
should want her help. The truth is that England's self- 
ish policy kept the colonies practically defenceless as 
against a military colony like Canada. She was so 
afraid of their coming to know their own strength, that 
Avhen it came to opposing Canada, it could not be done 
effectively for want of united effort. Canada was always 
on a war footing ; the American colonies were not. In 
all Canada there was but one will, while in the Amer- 
ican colonies there were as many wills as there were gov- 
ernors or legislatures. Besides in Canada there was al- 
ways a certain number of regular troops, that could be 
marched off to Detroit or Duquesne, by instant order of 
the governor-general. In the American colonies there 
were neither regular troops, officers, nor arsenals, so that 



JOIN OR DIE bb 

uo such prompt action could be taken. Worse still, 
these colonies never did pull together. Complete inde- 
pendence of each other made them regard their own in- 
terests first of all, and their neighbors very much in the 
light of foreigners. Virginia was jealous of Pennsyl- 
vania's moves in the West ; Pennsylvania more so of 
Virginia. There was no want of men, money, or martial 
spirit, except among the Quakers, but a united purpose 
was everywhere sadly lacking. Out of a state of depend- 
ence there had grown up such a habit of dependence 
upon England that unless England herself took action, it 
was plain that the colonies would hardly exert themselves 
to any useful purpose, even to fight their own battles. 

" Well, then," said King George, " if England finds the 
soldiers to fight their battles for them it is but fair they 
should pay them." Cheap bargaining that between a 
king and his subjects ! To this the colonies very plain- 
ly replied : " It is as much England's battle as ours, so 
long as we are part and parcel of the empire. Look at 
Canada ! French soldiers are sent out there to fight us, 
who are paid out of the public chest, and you say we must 
pay yours ourselves." " Very well," said the crafty king, 
" w^e will advance the money ourselves from our royal 
chest, merely taxing you for its repayment." "No," said 
the colonies again, " we will do our part in our own way, 
but as this is practically the same proposal disguised, 
submit to be taxed, without a voice in your Parliament, 
we will not." And there the matter was dropped. 

The colonies here established a principle, tersely 
phrased as " No taxation without representation." And 
that is where they were right. 

Seeing that the colonies could not fight the French 
alone, and would not hire English soldiers to help them, 



56 JOIN OR DIE 

for that was just what the king's proposal amounted to, 
England resolved first of all to whip the French, and 
reckon with the colonies afterward, but to do it in such a 
way as to avoid a formal declaration of war. As both 
countries had but lately ceased from a long and blood}' 
war, neither was half eager to renew it. They therefore 
kept up the same show of friendship at home, while 
quietly shipping off soldiers to fight one another across 
the Atlantic. This was wittily likened to two neighbors 
throwing stones at one another over the wall. And as 
both acted with about equal duplicity, perhaps the least 
said about honor the better. 

After careful consideration, it was secretly planned to 
attack all the French forts from Lake Champlain to the 
Ohio, take or destroy them, and so utterly to defeat the 
declared purpose of crowding the English back behind 
the Alleghanies, and keeping them there. To make suc- 
cess sure, these attacks were to be made at all points at 
once. So much, at least, was decided upon over the 
council table in England. 

Nothing is more simple than to trace out a plan of 
campaign on a map ; nothing easier than to traverse 
lakes, mountains, or wildernesses with the forefinger. 
Here we march, there fight ; and, presto, the thing is done. 
This plan covered a thousand miles of frontier, a great 
part of which was inaccessible for want of roads. Even 
the genius of a Cjiesar or a Napoleon could not march an 
army across the Alps without a road, and here Avere 
mountains over which no carriage had ever passed. 

By common consent the mastery of the Ohio valley 
was the most important object of all ; hence the greatest 
effort of all was to be put forth against Fort Duquesne. 
Should that fall, the French would be driven from the 



JOIN OR DIE 67 

valley back to the lakes ; should Niagara and Frontenac 
fall, they would be driven out of Lake Ontario, and their 
relaxing grasp torn from the West. For fifty years it 
had been constantly said in the colonies, " The French 
must be driven out of Canada ; we shall have no peace 
while they remain." It now began to look as if Avhat 
had been so long hoped for might really come to pass. 
Throughout the colonies there was a general awakening 
to the possibility — a listening for the tap of the war- 
drum. 

England, therefore, first directed the assembling of a 
convention or congress of delegates, from each colony, to 
secure the alliance of the Iroquois, that being a step of the 
first importance. This congress met at Albany, June 14, 
1754, and after listening to some very plain talk from the 
Iroquois chiefs, every word of which was true, engaged 
them in its cause, with the understanding that this time 
the French would certainly be driven out of Canada, bag 
and baggage.^ 

Something more was done. Benjamin Franklin, who 
had first thrown out his idea by a rude picture, and who 
was a member of this congress, had drawn up a plan "' to 
remedy the evils arising from a want of union. It took 
at once. His plan was agreed to, but never put in force, 
because, as we have said, England did not wish the colo- 
nies to know their own power, and Franklin's plan prom- 
ised to build up a powerful confederacy, quite like that 
set up in New England in 1643, with similar objects.^ 
But the seed had been sowed. It was most natural that 
when the chief men of the colonies came together they 
should talk over their own needs, compare their griev- 
ances, harmonize conflicting interests and so get in touch 
with each other, as every one felt they ought, but no- 



58 



THE TRAGEDY OF FORT DUQUESNE 



body suggested. And though imsuccessful at this time, 
the plan took deep root in the minds of all thinking men. 



1 The Iroquois had to be first pla- 
cated. They alleged first that it was their 
lands that the French and English were 
quarrelling about, and second, that the 
English had made paths and built forts 
through it without their consent. To this 
Conrad Weiser, the interpreter, replied 
as follows: "Brethren: The road to 
Ohio is no new road. It is an old and 
frequented road, the Shawnees and Del- 
awares removed thither above thirty 
years ago from Pennsylvania, ever since 
which that road has been travelled by 
our traders at their invitation and al- 
ways with safety, until within these few 
years that the French with their usual 



faithlessness sent armies there, threat- 
ened the Indians, and obstructed our 
trade with them."— Z>oc. Hist, of N. Y., 
ii., 585. 

2 Franklin's plan is said to be nearly 
identical with that outlined in 1722, in the 
preface to a tract entitled, "A Descrip- 
tion of the Province of South Carolina," 
by Daniel Coxe. But the New England 
Colonies had formed their confederacy 
on similar lines eighty years before. 

3 Thomas Pownall, a member of this 
congress, and later Governor of Massa- 
chusetts, submitted to the Earl of Hali- 
fax the danger of such a union to Great 
Britain. 



THE TRAGEDY OF FORT DUQUESNE 

"Who would haue thought it ? " 



To take Duquesne two battalions of regular troops, 
with suitable artillery, were sent over, under command 
of General Braddock,^ who was to have a like number of 
provincials, so raising his whole force above two thou- 
sand men. In later wars this would have been a mere 
detachment, but in those days it passed for a large army. 
It was not, however, so much the numbers, as the re- 
sults, that were of importance to this campaign, and 
these twenty odd hundred men were considered quite 
enough to take Duquesne, if properly led.~ And so 
they were. Knowing but vaguely what the service was 
to be, the home ministry had sent over a general as ig- 
norant as themselves. He was an indolent officer of the 
Guards, very soldierlike, very pompous, called very brave, 



THE TRAGEDY OF FORT DUQUESNE 



59 



alleghany 
*rTmer 



and bred in the same school as his patron, the Duke 
of Cumberland, who had the management of this war. 

The army was to 
take the old route, 
partly opened the year 
before by Washington 
— a hundred and twen- 
ty odd miles of shaggy 
wilderness, whose nu- 
merous obstacles gave 
the enemy just so 
much more time to get 
ready in.^ Workmen 
were now widening 
this old trail; but 
miles upon miles of 
forest must first be 
cut through, miles of 
logs laid down over a 
hundred sticky bogs, 
steep banks dug away, 
hollows filled up, 
bridges thrown across 
no end of streams, 
Avhich, at every crook 
and turn, came dart- 
ing across the axe- 
men's way. And this 
battle with the wil- 
derness must be 




BRADDOCK'S ROUTE. 



fought out first of all. 

There was no strategy whatever about this campaign. 
If its difiiculties and its dangers vividly recall one of 



60 THE TRAGEDY OF FORT DUQUESNE 

Hannibal's great marches, the comparison there ends, 
for anything more useless in a military sense avouIcI be 
hard to conceive. 

Braddock had a foretaste given him of what was to 
come, in marching np to Fort Cumberland, his real start- 
ing-point. However, here he Avas, at last, and no road 
open yet. He had been given to understand it would be 
ready as soon as he Avas. Like all headstrong men, the 
general AA^as choleric ; so he did not mince matters, but 
fell to abusing everybody who had a hand in the Avork, 
from the governor doAvn. It must be confessed that his 
doing so put a little more life into them. In truth, it 
was not so much Avhat his patron, the duke, had said 
to him about surprises, or even Franklin's Avell-meant 
hints at Indian ambuscades, as that long, hard march 
to Duquesne that troubled Braddock ; and noAV that he 
stood looking off, in deep thought, at the dim and 
distant peaks of the Alleghanies, they, in turn looking 
doAvn on him in majestic mockery, Ave may fancy him 
saying to himself, tAventy times a day, " Hoav shall I ever 
get there ? " 

That was not all. Braddock found himself Avithout 
Avagons, and of Avhat use Avas a road Avithout AA^agons, 
when every pound of bread and meat must go along 
Avitli the army ? This apathy on all sides Avas more 
than Braddock's quick temper could endure, so again 
he stormed at everyone Avithout stint. Of course, those 
most to blame Avere the most angry. An undercurrent 
of dislike began to make itself felt in camp. Then, to 
make matters Avorse, Braddock could not hel]3 turning 
up his aristocratic nose at the aAA^kAvard Virginia recruits, 
Avho liked him none the better for it from that day forth. 
It was Avell that Franklin set himself to scouring the 



THE TRAGEDY OF FORT DUQUESNE 



61 



country round for wagons. Soon they began coming in 
from all quarters. In short, all these mishaps had a 
tendency to injure Braddock's prospects in advance. 
The army had not yet seen him fight, but too often had 
heard him swear. 

Fortunately, again, Washington had joined the army, 
as an aid to Brad- 
dock. Washington 
knew the country, 
and he knew the 
enemy, too, but in 
those days a Brit- 
ish general was so 
great a man that for 
a simple provin- 
cial colonel to prof- 
fer advice seemed 
downright pre- 
sumption. The 
Yirginan was, how- 
ever, equal to it, 
in an emergency. 
Several other men 
of mark were with 
this army — Thomas 

Gage for one, Horatio Gates for another, Hugh Mercer 
for another, and last, but not least, among the unnoticed 
wagoners rode Daniel Morgan, the " bravest of the brave." 

Upon finding that Braddock meant to march in the 
good old-fashioned way — grenadiers in front, flankers 
out, if the ground would permit — Washington ventured 
to suggest that the Virginians would be in their proper 
element beating up the woods at the front. Braddock 




GENERAL DANIEL MORGAN. 



62 THE TRAGEDY OF FORT DUQUESNE 

had laughed heartily at Franklm's dark hints, but ad- 
vice from an aid, and a provincial at that, was too much. 
So, though the best in the world, it was haughtily re- 
jected. After being forty years a soldier, the general 
thought himself too old to learn his trade over again 
from these raw recruits. He was a thorough-going mar- 
tinet, cold-blooded as an Iroquois, brave as a lion, and 
obstinate as a mule. 

By this time all those who had got warmed up over 
the expedition, when its prospects were good, had cooled 
off. Officers and men alike foresaw that it was going to 
be no pleasure-jaunt, under such a leader. 

At length, on June lOtli, the army filed off into 
the forest. From that day forth until its return, broken 
and defeated, it was as completely lost to all sight and 
knowledge of men, as if an ocean had swallowed it up. 
Once in the mountains all order was lost. The main 
thing was how to get the guns and wagons along ; and 
the doing this proved a truly herculean task. In some 
of the steepest places the guns would have to be hitched 
along with tackles made fast to rocks or trees, at which 
a gang of sailors, lent to Braddock for the purpose, would 
waken the echoes with their shouts, as they hauled cheer- 
ily away at the ropes. 

Thus the army crept up the great mountain Avail from 
day to day. And from day to day new difficulties were 
to be met and overcome. Luckily for them, the soldiers 
were to get broken into this sort of thing before they 
found the enemy, or Brad dock's march might have ended 
among the gloomy defiles of the Laurel Ridge. 

On the 16th the advance reached Washington's old 
camp at Little Meadows. It had been such dread- 
fully slow work that, by Washington's advice, Braddock 



THE TRAGEDY OF FORT DITQUESNE 63 

decided to push on ahead with a picked cohimn, twelve 
hundred strong, carrying everything on pack-horses, and 
leaving Colonel Dunbar to come on more slowly with 
the train. The two divisions then separated. 

Three weeks more the leading division wound its toil- 
some way down the rugged mountain steeps, watched 
from every height by lurking enemies. From time to 
time the sharp crack of a rifle told them that these tire- 
less scouts were dogging their footsteps to pick off 
stragglers. Now and then, a wounded man would be 
carried by to the rear. There is nothing like it to make 
men prick up their ears and keep their ranks. 

They had passed the Youghiogheny, and were now 
winding along the wooded bottoms of the Monongahela, 
and these shots were a sure sign that they were nearing 
their journey's end. Again Washington begged hard to 
have the rangers thrown out to clear the way for the 
troops. Again he was unsuccessful. At the smell of 
powder so near, all Braddock's fatal obstinacy seemed to 
increase tenfold. So the unconsidered Virginians con- 
tinued to bring up the rear. 

On July 8th Braddock went into camp on the banks 
of the Monongahela, some fifteen miles from Du- 
quesne. That meant that to-morrow would see warm 
work. Scouts had gone quite up to the fort, without see- 
ing any force between them. This report naturally threw 
the English off their guard. Everything seemed working 
famously. The army was in excellent spirits, the enemy 
within striking distance, and all quiet. 

Once more, and for the last time, Washington begged 
Braddock to give the riflemen their proper place and 
work, at the outposts. It was to no purpose. The in- 
fatuated general only flew into a rage. The order of 



64 



THE TRAGEDY OF FORT DUQUESNE 



march could not be changed, or the post of honor given 
up to undisciplined provincials. 

July 9th the army turned out at break of day, in full 
uniform. Though now on the same side of the river as 
Duquesne, the hills here crowded down upon the stream 
so closely as to make a defile, difficult to force if the 
enemy should be met there. The other bank was more 

open. It was, 
therefore, de- 
cided to turn 
these hills by 
crossing the 
river twice, 
and again 
strikinof the 
trail at Era- 
ser's house, ^ 
only a short 
eight miles 
from the fort. 
It turned out 
to be a very 
unfortunate 
decision, involving a fatal loss of time, as the march was 
considerably lengthened thereby. 

Braddock seems to have thought that if the savages 
were lying in ambush for him, his advance-guard would 
put them up like partridges from their covert. His ad- 
vance was now led by Colonel Gage, who had with him 
some two hundred and fifty men, besides a few guides 
or scouts. Some accounts give him three hundred. As 
soon as it was light, Gage passed both fords without see- 
ing an enemy. Behind him came a working party, of 




PLAN OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD. 



THE TRAGEDY OF FORT DUQUESNE 



65 



the same strength as his own, which fell to work slop- 
ing off the banks, before the main body should come 
up with the guns. By the time this was done, the head 
of the rear division was seen marching up to the crossing. 





The Monongahela flows 
here with a sluggish current 
between rather high sand- 
banks. Braddock no doubt 
thought that since the ene- 
my had not disputed the crossing, it was not likely he 
would make a stand between it and the fort. 

As if to show his contempt for prudent counsels Brad- 
dock had decided to make all the noise he could that 
morning. It was going to be an out-and-out field-day 
5 



66 THE TRAGEDY OF FORT DUQUESNE 

with him. Strange sounds now broke the stillness of those 
forest wilds. At the order to marcli all the fifes and drums 
struck up their liveliest tunes, standards were unfurled to 
the breeze, bayonets flashed brightly in the sun, as to the 
martial strains the troops moved briskly off in close order, 
reaching the second ford at about noon. Finding this in 
Gage's hands, Braddock halted to let the men eat their 
dinners here, and at one they began crossing. 

As soon as the army was well closed up, Gage moved 
off on the trail to the fort, which here struck off from the 
river across a broad strip of bottom, grown up with grass 
to the knees, and, after reaching higher ground, again ran 
with the river. Gage was looking sharply out for the 
enemy, while, with pick and shovel, the working party 
cleared the way behind him for the passage of the main 
body, seven to eight hundred strong. 

This rising ground, of fatal celebrity, merits a brief de- 
scription. It was an open wood, grown up with bushes 
or rank grass, in which the j)ath was soon lost. All was 
silent, save the drowsy hum of bees among the wild 
bloom, or the tapping of a stray woodpecker on some de- 
caying, but still stately, monarch of the forest. These 
familiar sounds covdd hardly prefigure, even to a soldier's 
ears, the whizzing of bullets or the strokes of a toma- 
hawk. 

The French, at Duquesne, had been put in a pretty 
fright ever since they knew what force was approaching 
them. Their counsels were divided. Some were for 
sticking by the fort, some for leaving it, some of the 
bolder sort for making a sally. Among those who urged 
this course, not with any hope of victory indeed, but to 
strike one good blow for it, was a dashing young soldier 
called Beaujeu, who finally prevailed upon the command- 



THE TRAGEDY OF FORT DUQUESNE 



67 



ant to let him go. Beaujeu, therefore, instantly led out a 
mixed force of French regulars, Canadians, and savages, 
nine hundred in all, meaning to ambuscade the ford, and 

1 




BEAUJEU LEADS THE ENEMY ON. 



if possible stop the English there. But before he could 
reach it Gage was met, drawn up across the road. 

Each party saw the other at the same instant. Euro- 



68 THE TRAGEDY OF FORT DUQUESNE 

pean against savage tactics were now put to decisive 
trial. Beaujeu waved liis hat for his men to run to cover, 
while Gage, thinking he was going to be overwhelmed by 
a rush, first ordered his grenadiers to fix bayonets, and 
then, quickly undeceived by the bullets now coming thick 
and fast, to return the fire, which they did with a will. 

Almost at this first volley, Beaujeu fell dead, and those 
nearest him were scattered in confusion, but others were 
constantly coming up to take their places, so that the 
enemy were soon giving Gage two shots for his one. 

Gage's men stood this well for a time, cheering and 
firing away at what they could see, or Avhenever a puff of 
smoke revealed an enemy. Above the rattle of musketry 
there rose such unearthly and discordant yells as shook 
even the stoutest nerves. This standing up to be picked 
off like pigeons on a roost, was more than flesh and blood 
could bear. At last Gage himself was hit. The men 
began to fall back, then to run, sweeping u]^ the working 
party as they Avent, and carrying it along with them down 
upon the main body, like the debris of some furious tor- 
rent. 

Close at their heels, like wolves made furious by the 
taste of blood, came the yelling and whooping enemy. 

The fugitives threw the advancing column into a confu- 
sion from which it was never allowed to rally. As Brad- 
dock rode up from the rear, all fire and wrath at this 
check, he found the officers vainly trying to form a front 
against the fire now pelting them from all sides at once. 
In vain he himself stormed at the men. If they had 
been armed with clubs and spears they could not have 
been more helpless against an enemy felt, but hot seen. 
There they stood, huddled together like sheep, wholly in- 
capable of striking one good blow in their own defence. 



THE TRAGEDY OF FORT DtJQUESNE ' 69 

And meantime, as if answering to the roll-call of the 
reaper, Death, the soldiers were falling out fast. 

The artillery was unlimbered. The gunners saw noth- 
ing to fire at but the trees, and only added to the fright- 
ful noises raging around them. One brave effort was 
made, by a handful of men, to drive the enemy from 
some high ground, from which there came a most de- 
structive fire. It was unsuccessful. The Virginians, 
called up at last, made heroic efforts to stem the tide of 
disaster. All was useless. It was too late. 

The fate of the vanguard was, in truth, but a foretaste 
of what was to befall the main body. A living target, it 
stood there for three terrible hours, palsied by fear, un- 
til little by little it was torn to pieces. Behind it lay the 
river, so lately crossed in all the pomp and pride of antici- 
pated triumph, now likely to be the grave of all who should 
try to recross it in the face of the murderous redskins. 

All this Braddock fully realized, but, bulldog-like, he 
seemed rather resojved to be hacked in pieces than yield 
the ground. And still the slaughter went on. 

The riflemen did something toward keeping down the 
enemy's fire ; more they could not do at that late hour. 

At last, after three-fourths of his officers and men had 
fallen, and when dropping shots began to be heard 
back at the river, Braddock gave the order to retreat. 
And it was high time. The men could no longer be held 
in that slaughter-pen. They now broke away in one 
headlong rush for the river. While making a last effort 
for an orderly retreat, a ball brought Braddock bleeding 
to the ground. 

All was now over. The terrified fugitives forded the 
river under a shower of bullets, not even stopping after 
they had put it between them and their pursuers, who. 



70 



THE TRAGEDY OF FORT DUQUESKE 



weary with carnage, now fell to plundering the baggage 
and to stripping the dead. The wounded were toma- 
hawked and scalped without mercy. On that blood- 
stained field there lay stretched out at nightfall, food for 
wolves and vultures, the bodies of seven hundred men, 
victims to the obstinacy of their 
dying commander.^ 

So well had the enemy kept in 
their hiding-places, that many of 




BRADDOCK DOWN. 



the officers who had been in the 
fight would not say that they had 
seen even one redskin. 
This closed the most disgraceful day known to British 
military annals. The rest is soon told. The fugitives 
did not stop running till they got to Dunbar's camp," 
full sixty miles back on the road, thus covering, in a night 
and a day, what it had taken them ten days to get over 
before. Not knowing what else to do, Dunbar, in his 



THE TRAGEDY OF FOKT DUQUESNE 



71 



turn, retreated first to Fort Cumberland and then to 
Philadelphia. 

News of the dreadful calamity travelled fast and far, 
spreading horror, shame, dismay as it went. Never be- 
fore had the colonies bowed to such a stroke as this. 
They could hardly believe the reports that came drop- 
ping in piecemeal, until all the dismal story was told. 
Many a cheek grew pale at the thought that it was now 
time to look to themselves, as nothing could now keep 
the triumphant savages from pouring down upon them 
over Braddock's own road. 

Braddock ! — he, poor general, died of his wounds after 
reaching the Great Meadows, there finding in a soldier's 
grave full and entire immunity from the reproaches that 
everywhere followed the mention of his name.^ Once 
only did he open his lips on the night of the battle, to 
feebly articulate the words, so full of meaning for him, 
" Who would have thought it ? " 



1 General Edward Braddock : 
Franklin says of him, ' This general 
was, I think, a brave man, and might 
probably have made a good figure in 
some European war. But he had too 
much self-confidence, too high an opin- 
ion of the validity of regular troops, too 
mean a one of both Americans and lu- 
(Hiaway—AxitoMography. Horace Wal- 
pole has several anecdotes of Brad- 
dock, repeated in Irving's Washing- 
ton, Parkman's Montcalvti and Wolfe, 
etc. " Desperate in his fortunes, bru- 
tal in his behavior, obstinate in his 
sentiments, he was still intrepid and 
capable," says Walpole. Taken to- 
gether, these two estimates proba- 
bly hit off Braddock quite accurately. 

2 The two battalions of regulars, 
44th and 48th, were recruited, from .500. 
to 700 men each, in Virginia. The pro- 
vincials numbered 450 more, and there 



was a train of artillery, with some sailors 
to assist in getting it over the mountains. 
The whole amounted to 2,200 comba- 
tants. The regular battalions were com- 
manded by Sir Peter Halket and Colo- 
nel Thomas Dunbar. 

3 In proof of this, it is known that 
the French had time to call in their In- 
dians even from beyond the Mississippi 
and Missouri. Both Osage villages sent 
all the warriors who could be spared. 
The commandant at Fort C'hartres sup- 
plied them w;th powder and ball. The 
Otoes were also in the battle, and even 
the Kansas reached Duquesne just after 
it. — P i k e ' 8 Expedition, Appendix, 
ii., 15. 

* Fraser's house was at the moi)th of 
Turtle Creek. From here an old path 
led to the fort. Washington had stopped 
here, on his way home from Fort Le 
BcEuf : see ante. 



72 



THE HIGHLANDER S STORY 



sBraddock's field. "September 1 
(1760), Samuel Dominshear and myself 
set oif through the woods for Brad- 
dock's field ; and when we came to the 
place where they crossed of the river 
Monongahela, we saw a great many 
men's bones along the shore. We kept 
along .the road about 1)4 miles, where 
the first engagement began, where there 
are men's bones lying about as thick 
as leaves do on the ground."— Jour- 
nal of Colonel Jehu Eyre, Penna. 
Magazine. 



^ Dunbar's camp was about five miles 
east of Uniontown. Though clearly 
right in falling back to Fort Cumberland, 
his further retreat was scarcely justifi- 
able, as it threw the whole frontier open. 

■^ Braddock's grave : " We rode 
this day over om* English General 
Braddock's grave. To prevent the In- 
dians, then in pursuit, from discovering 
his body, he ordered it to be buried in 
the midst of the road, at the foot of the 
Alleghany Mountains.''— Faux's Travels, 
p. 164. 



THE HIGHLANDER'S STORY 



[From Sandfofd and Merton] 

" One morning the way before ns appeared more intri- 
cate and obscure than usual ; the forest did not, as was 
generally the case, consist of lofty trees, which afford a 
tolerably clear prospect between their trunks, but were 
composed of creeping bushes and impervious thickets. 
The army marched as before, with the vain ostentation 
of military discipline, but totally unprepared for the 
dreadful scene that followed. * 

"At length we entered a gloomy valley, surrounded on 
every side by the thickest shade, and rendered swampy 
by the overflowing of a rivulet. In this situation it Avas 
impossible to continue our march Avithout disordering 
our ranks, and part of the army extended itself be^-ond 
the rest, while another part of the line involuntarily 
fell back behind. 

" In the moment while the officers were employed in 
rectifying the disorder of their men, a sudden noise of 
musketry was heard in front, which stretched about 
twenty of our men upon the field. The soldiers instinc- 



THE Highlander's stoky 73 

tively fired toward the part where they were attacked and 
instantly fell back in disorder. But it was equally in 
vain to retreat or to go forward, for it now appeared that 
we Avere completely hemmed in. On every side re- 
sounded the fatal peals of scattering fire, that thinned 
our ranks and extended our bravest comrades on the 
earth. Figure to yourself a shoal of fishes, inclosed 
within the net, that circle the fatal labyrinth in which 
they are involved ; or rather conceive, what I have my- 
self been a witness to, a herd of deer surrounded on 
every side by a band of active and unpitying hunters, 
who press and gall them on every side, and exterminate 
them at leisure in their flight ; just such was the situation 
of our unfortunate countrj-men. After a few unavailing 
discharges, which never annoyed a secret enemy that 
scattered death unseen, the ranks were broken, and all 
subordination lost. The ground was covered with gasp- 
ing wretches, and stained with blood ; the woods re- 
sounded v»ith cries and groans, and fruitless attempts of 
our gallant officers to rally their men and check the prog- 
ress of the enemy. By intervals w^as heard, more shrill, 
more dreadful than all the rest, the dismal yell of the vic- 
torious savages, who now, emboldened by their success, 
began to leave the covert and hew down those who fled 
wdth unrelenting cruelty. As to myself, the description 
which our colonel had given me of their method of attack, 
and the precautions to be used against it, rendered me, 
perhaps, less disturbed than I should otherwise have 
been. I remarked that those wdio stood and those who 
fled were exposed to equal danger. Those who kept 
their ranks, and endeavored to repel the enemy, exposed 
their persons to their fire, and were successively shot 
down, as happened to most of our unfortunate officers ; 



74 THE EN^D OF FRENCH DOMINION, 1759 

while those who fled frequently rushed headlong upon 
the very death they sought to avoid. 

" Pierced to the heart at the sight of such carnage of 
my gallant comrades, I grew indifferent to life, and aban- 
doned myself to despair, but it was a despair that neither 
impaired my exertions, nor robbed me of the faculties 
of my mind, ' Imitate me,' I cried, ' my gallant country- 
men, and we shall yet be safe ! ' I then directly ran to 
the nearest tree, and sheltered myself behind its stem, 
convinced that this precaution alone could secure one 
from the incessant volleys which darted on every side. 
A small number of Highlanders followed my examjDle, 
and thus secured we began to fire with more success at 
the enemy, who now exposed themselves with less reserve. 
This check seemed to astonish and confound them ; and, 
had not the panic been so great, it is possible that this 
successful effort might have changed the fortune of the 
fight ; for, in another quarter, the provincial troops that 
accompanied us behaved wdth the greatest bravery, and 
though deserted by the European forces, effected their 
own retreat." 



THE END OF FRENCH DOMINION, 1759 

And now comes the Seven Years' War in Europe, in 
which England saw her opportunity to strike a finishing 
blow at France in America, while France had her hands 
full in Europe. It was now fully agreed in London that 
our continent could not remain half English and half 
French. The plain alternative was to conquer the French 
half ; so armies were formed, maps studied, and cam- 
paigns planned to that end. 

Under incompetent or home-made generals, things 



THE END OF FRENCH DOMINION, 1759 



75 



steadily went from bad to worse, until the master-hand 
of William Pitt at length guided this momentous plan 
to complete success. What most concerns that result in 
the AVest came about in this way. In 1758 it was planned 
to make a combined assault upon Louisburg, Ticoude- 
roga, and Du- 
quesne, and 
so, as with 
one resistless 
blow, to break 
down the 
whole French 
line from east 
to west.^ Lou- 
isburg fell, but 
Ticonderoga 
stood fast, 
thanks to the 
valor of Gene- 
ral Montcalm, 
its defender. 

Part of the 
army, which 
had fallen 
back from Ti- 
conderoga, 
easily took 
Fort Fronte- 

nac, which closed the entrance to Lake Ontario to the 
French. They were now cut off from their western posts 
by the direct route, and, if not an operation of such 
dazzling brilliancy as that directed against Duquesne, 
the taking of Frontenac at least rendered that march 




GENERAI., THE MARQUIS DE MONTCAtM. 



76 THE END OF FREKCII DOMINION, 1759 



wholly Liniiecessarj. A modest provincial officer, named 
Bradstreet,^ performed this notable exploit against the 
judgment of his superior, General Abercromby. 

For the attack on Duquesne, a strong force marched 
from Raystown (Bedford), by a new road,^ laid out 
to the north of Braddock's and more direct. General 
Forbes, the commander, being sick, had to be carried 
along in a litter. The friendly Indians who had joined 
him were so indignant at seeing a warrior who could 
not walk presume to lead them that they were on the 
eve of deserting in a body. To prevent their doing so 
Conrad Weiser, the interpreter, made them this explana- 
tion : " Brothers," said he, pointing to the general's lit- 
ter, " this man is so terrible in war that we are obliged to 
confine him, and let him write his orders ; for if he were 
let loose upon the world he would deluge it Avith blood." 

Colonel Bouquet,^ a brave Swiss in the English ser- 
vice, held a command in this army. Colonel Wash- 
ington, too, was going out again with a Yirginia regi- 
ment, partly equipped like Indians. 

When within fifty miles of Duquesne, Colonel Bouquet, 
who had the advance, sent forward eight hundred men to 
reconnoitre it. The officer in command ^ got within a 
mile of the fort unopposed, when he seems to have lost 
his head. While parading his men as if to dare the gar- 
rison to come out, the gates were suddenly flung open, 
out poured a furious throng, leaping, screeching, and 
brandishing their weapons, and before the challenger 
could realize his peril he was being attacked in front, 
flank, and rear by twice or thrice his numbers. He tried 
to fight as Braddock fought, and like him was nearly cut 
to pieces. 

This unlooked-for reverse, of course, brought the main 



THE END OF FRENCH DOMINION, 1759 77 



body to a sudden halt. AVhen, finally, it did get up, 
Duquesne was found a heap of smouldering ruins. 
After setting it on fire, the garrison had taken to their 
boats, and escaped doAvn the Ohio. Sooner or later, this 
must have come to pass without the loss of a man, or a 




bouquet's redoubt, PITTSBURG. 

charge of powder. And thus it was that the original 
cause of the war had fallen without firing a shot. 

With the raising of the English fiag the place was 
rechristened Fort Pitt,'' by Forbes, in honor of the Great 
Commoner who had planned its downfall. 

The next year (1759) saw the last of French power in 
Canada. One crushing blow followed another. First 
Niagara was taken, then Ticonderoga and CroAvn Point, 



78 



THE END OF FRENCH DOMINION, 1759 



and lastly Quebec, that greatest stronghold of all, which 
the French were so confident could not be taken, fell be- 
fore the victorious Wolfe. The western posts shared the 




GENERAL JAMES WOLFE. 



fate of the rest, a little later. From Fort Pitt, Bouquet 
went up the Alleghany to take possession of Presquisle, 
which the French had set on fire and abandoned.^ 
From Presquisle Major Rogers crossed the lake to oc- 



THE END OF FRENCH DOMINION. 1759 



79 



cupy Detroit. And so the French flag came clown, and 
the English went up over all the great Northwest. Mill- 
ions had been spent, blood poured out like water, and 
all in vain. What it had taken so many years to rear 
since La Salle first threaded these unheeded solitudes 
was become the prize of France's greatest rival at last. 

General Forbes was obliged to turn over the command^ 
to General Stanwix, who continued the work of fortifying 
Pittsburg, and of pacifying the hostile tribes. The in- 
trenchments were carried across from the Alleghany to 
the Monongahela. Eighteen pieces of artillery covered 
this approach ; barracks were built to lodge a thousand 
soldiers. British dominion was at last firmly seated on 
the Ohio. Better still, no less than four thousand poor 
people, who had been driven away from the frontiers, 
now came back to their deserted clearings. 



1 The strategy looked first to secur- 
ing the two main avenues into Canada. 
That done, it only remained to fight the 
decisive battle somewhere between Mon- 
treal and Quebec. Wolfe fought and 
won it at Quebec. When that happened, 
it was only a question of time when the 
western posts must fall of themselves. 

'^ John Bradstreet served with Pep- 
perell. at Louisburg. His services during 
the next campaign, at Oswego, Ticon- 
deroga, Frontenac, etc., were numerous 
and brilliant. He rose through succes- 
sive grades to that of major-general in 
the British army, dying at New York in 
1774. See Taking of Louisburg. 

^ New military road struck out from 
Bedford, across the main range of the 
Alleghanies, to Loyal Hannon Creek, a 
stream of the Alleghany. At this point, 
fifty-four miles from Pittsburg, Forbes 
built Fort Ligonier (Ligonier was a su- 
perannuated British general), both as a 
magazine and to keep his communica- 
tions open. Instructed by Braddock's 



terrible lesson, Forbes followed the old 
Roman plan of advancing only so fast as 
he could secure his hold on the country, 
or at need his retreat. By and by these 
new posts served as rallying-points for 
the settlers. 

* Colonel Henry Bouquet advocated 
the new route, against the advice ot 
Washington, who wanted to take Brad- 
dock's road, to save delay. Yet there 
was certainly a feeling among Virginians 
opposed to making another road to the 
Ohio, not based upon military grounds — 
Virginia against Pennsylvania. 

^ Ma-jor Grant, of the Highlanders, 
marched from Ligonier, reaching the 
neighborhood of the fort September 14th. 
Grant's Hill, where the fight took place, 
was about a mile from the fort. Grant 
lost 273 men, killed, wounded, and 
taken, being himself among the capt- 
ured. 

« Pittsburg was a name immediately 
taken up by the village that sprung up 
around the fort. This was either dq- 



80 PONTIAC'S WAR, 1763 

Btroyed or abandoned when the fort was which they drew their supplies. All 

invested in 1763. " The town was laid were burned, the garrisons retreating to 

out on Penn's plan, in the year 1765, on Detroit. 

the east bank of the Monongahela, about ** General Forbes died the following 

two hundred yards from Fort Duquesne." spring, and was buried in Christ Church. 

—Morse's Gazetteer, ed. 1797. During this campaign he had to be car- 

^ Pkesquisle, Le Boeuf, and Venango ried about in a litter, like Marshal Saxe 

fell immediately after Niagara, from at Fontenoy. 



PONTIAC'S WAR, 1763 



Peace came in 1763, and with it Canada was ceded to 
England by France, and Florida by Spain. The cost in 
money had been enormous ; in human life deplorable ; 
and to the colonies the great triumph came mingled with 
a deep sense of war's desolation. 

All thinking men saw that such a political upheaval as 
this would leave many ugly questions unsettled. In the 
first place, a vanquished population of foreigners was to 
be reconciled. As to this, the temper of the Canadians 
was sullen, though subdued. England w^as no less hated 
that her rule was silently assented to. Not so, however, 
with the French Indians. They, also, were sullen, but 
unsubdued. This feeling was artfully kept alive by the 
French traders,^ who often secretly hinted that English 
rule would soon come to an end. 

Fickle as these savages Avere, habit had strongly at- 
tached them to the French. Many spoke the language. 
Some had been baptized. Others had intermarried with 
the traders or bush-rangers, so that there had come to be 
in most villages a distinct body of half-breeds, who 
might be described as uniting the worst qualities of both 
races. Not unfrequently these strangers had been adopted 
into the tribes, and sometimes even made chiefs. Such 
bonds as these, it is plain, could not be sundered in a day. 



PONTIAO S WAR, 1763 



81 



When the Indians were told that they would shortly 
see themselves turned out of their hunting-grounds, they 
believed it. Savage though he was, the Indian could 
not fail to read the signs of the times in the history of 
his race. Within the memory of their old men his people 
had been pushed over the Endless Mountains '^ by the 




SCALP-DANCE (AFTER CAXMN). 



ever-advancing whites, who also drove back the game, so 
that every year the range grew less and less. Their wise 
men said that either the white men must be turned back, 
or the Indians all turn women and hoe corn for the Eng- 
lishman. 

A hundred years before, Philip,-^ the great Wampan- 
oag, had fought for this very same idea on the shores of 
6 



82 PONTIAC'S WAE, 1763 

the Atlantic, and lost. Pontiac,^ an Ojibway chief, now 
stood forth to do battle in the same cause. 

Briefly told, Pontiac's war arose from jealousy of Eng- 
lish rule. Detroit was occupied by an English garrison, 
November 29, 1760, along with other western posts.'"' 
Detroit was Pontiac's home. From that moment he 
schemed and toiled to bring all the nations of the 
West into one great league against the English. To 
each he allotted its own particular work in the rising, 
reserving for himself the capture of Detroit, strongest of 
all the posts to be attacked. It was all done with such 
consummate secrecy that the English did not so much 
as dream that each and every one of them had his ap- 
pointed executioner. But so it was. 

There had grown up around the fort a quite prosper- 
ous settlement, reckoned, in round numbers, at twenty- 
five hundred inhabitants, mostly Canadians. Some of 
them lived across the river, in what is now Windsor. 
The fort itself ^' was but a wall of stout pickets, twenty- 
five feet high, with log bastions at the corners for can- 
non, and a block-house at each gate. The pickets were 
loop-holed for musketry. There Avere, perhaps, a hun- 
dred soldiers in it, fit for duty, besides some forty trad- 
ers or employees, who could be relied upon to fight in 
an emergency. 

Pontiac, of course, knew every nook and corner of the 
place, and had often counted every man in it. The 
pickets were too high to be scaled, and the gates too 
strong to be forced, and they were, moreover, always shut 
at nightfall. So Pontiac set his wits to work. 

His first move was to ask for a council, as a means of 
getting a chosen band of warriors into the fort, unsus- 
pected. When he gave them the signal they Avere to fall 



PONTIAC's WAK, 1763 83 

on the garrison, throw open the gates, and let in their 
confederates from the outside. The council was readily 
granted them, but Gladwin, the commander, having been 
secretly warned, as some say by an Ojibway girl, whom 
he had treated kindly, prepared a surprise for the would- 
be assassins ; so Avhen they came stalking into the fort 
at Pontiac's heels, each one tightly clutching the weapon 
hid under his blanket, they found all the soldiers drawn 
up under arms, every e3^e sternly watching them, and ev- 
ery officer's hand laid on his SAvord-hilt. 

Pontiac instantly saw that he had been betrayed. 

" Why do I see so many of my father's young men 
standing in the streets with their guns ? " demanded the 
wily savage. 

" To keep the young men from idleness," was the cold 
reply. 

Enraged by this failure, no sooner was he safe outside 
than Pontiac flung his warriors against the fort in succes- 
sive assaults, but the pickets were stout, the garrison stood 
firm, and with the aid of one small vessel anchored off in 
the river, every assault was repulsed with ease. 

Meantime, on the appointed day, the tribes far and 
near had risen as one man. Their first victims were the 
English traders, nearly two hundred of whom were scat- 
tered among the Indian villages, and all but two or three 
murdered. 

Awake at last to the greatness of the danger, Gladwin 
at once sent off a vessel to Niagara for help. 

Then Pontiac resolved to starve the garrison out. So 
he pitched his camp two miles below the fort, where he 
could intercept vessels coming with supplies, without 
which Pontiac kneAV the place could not long hold out. 
Gladwin, however, was determined not to give up so 



84 



PONTIAC'S WAR, 1763 



long as a morsel of bread or a charge of powder was 

left. 

The way between Pontiac's camp and the fort was scat- 




PONTIAC'S FIUE-CANOES. 



tered with the houses of the inhabitants, whom the chief- 
tain compelled to feed his squalid army. Not a man 
stirred to help the imperilled garrison. Its one hope, 
therefore, lay in prompt relief from Niagara. But for 



PONTIAC'S WAR, 1763 85 

this the crafty Pontiac had set his trap, as we have seen. 
By watching the river day and night some of the relief 
vessels were taken, while others reached the fort only af- 
ter desperate fighting. Pontiac tried to destroy these by 
sending fire-canoes down upon them, as they lay at an- 
chor, at night, under the guns of the fort. 

Pontiac kept two secretaries, one to write his letters, 
and one to read those he received, though, Indian-like, he 
trusted neither. In payment for provisions he gave 
birch-bark receipts with his own totem, an otter, scrawled 
upon them. Quick to adopt the best methods of his ad- 
versaries, Pontiac was fast becoming a skilful general ; 
yet, though he styled himself " King from the rising to 
the setting sun," events were hastening his downfall, none 
the less. 

Meantime, the war was being carried to the gates of 
every one of the lonely frontier posts from Niagara to the 
Maumee. One by one they were being ravaged by fire 
and slaughter. 

In July — -the siege had begun early in May — Captain 
Dalzell came down in a vessel from Niagara to reinforce 
Detroit. On his way he stopped at Sandusky, meaning 
to surprise the old Indian village there, but finding this 
abandoned, he went his way up the lake. The English 
garrison had been surprised in June, and all slaughtered, 
except Lieutenant Pauley, the ofiicer in command, who 
was first carried off to an Ottawa village, and then given 
the choice between marrying a squaw, or being put to 
death. He was not put to death. 

Presquisle fell at about the same time, after making a 
heroic defence. Being too few to defend every part of 
the fort at once, the garrison shut themselves up in the 
block-house. The assailants tried to burn it over their 



86 PONTIAC'S WAR, 1763 

heads, by shooting lighted arrows into the roof. Fifty 
times it was on lire and as often put out by volunteers, at 
the risk of being shot down by the light of the flames. 
Still the determined little band fought on unflinchingly. 
At length their supply of water gave out. Even then 
they did not falter. While some manned the loop-holes, 
the rest fell to digging a well inside the block-house, Avliich 
was finished in a day. All was, however, in vain, as the 
enemy had succeeded in mining the block diouse, and now 
threatened to blow it up if the garrison did not surren- 
der. This they did under the promise of being sent safe 
to Pittsburg, instead of which they were treacherously 
marched ofl' to Detroit. Two soldiers, who escaped, 
brought the bad news to Pittsburg, made worse by the 
report that Le Boeuf and Yenango ' had also fallen. That 
line being completely gone, the savages immediately 
poured through the gap upon the defenceless border. 

Michilimackinac fell easily. It Avas a stockade de- 
fended by only thirty soldiers. To all appearance the 
neighboring tribes were friendly. The Ojibways, how- 
ever, had laid a clever plan to take the fort and massa- 
cre the garrison. They set the king's birthday for their 
attempt, knowing it would be a holiday, and a less strict 
guard kept. The plan worked to a charm. Those sol- 
diers wdio were off duty went outside the fort to see a 
game of lacrosse played between some Sacs and Ojib- 
ways, who showed great skill at this favorite pastime of 
theirs. A crowd of Indians stood around looking on. 
All this time the fort gate stood open. By degrees the 
players came nearer and nearer. Suddenly the ball 
went bounding over the stockade into the fort. Players 
and lookers-on rushed in after it through the open gate. 
Then only did the fiendish purpose of the game become 



PONTIAC'S WAE, 1763 



87 



apparent. Once inside, blankets were cast aside, toma- 
hawks drawn, whoops and yells sounded the fearful sig- 
nal, and the massacre began. 

One bv one the unarmed soldiers fell beneath the 
blows of their infuriated pursuers. Those who hid 
themselves were soon dragged forth from their hiding- 
places, to be despatched without mercy. Slaughter raged 
unchecked until the fort was a shambles. Alexander 
Henry, ^ an eye-witness, says that the Canadians stood 




OLD BARRACKS, FREDERICK, MD. 



silently by, through it all, neither proffering aid to the 
victims, nor receiving any hurt from the savages. 

Most remote of all the western posts, Green Bay was 
also taken. Thus, with the exception of Pittsburg and 
Detroit, every vestige of military power had been swept 
awa}^, as by the passing of a whirlwind ; and these two 
key -points could only let the storm pass over them. 

The Pennsylvania border was now suddenly overrun 
by numerous savage war-parties, who slew old and 



88 PONTIAC'S WAR, 1763 

young, set fire to the houses, and threw the mangled re- 
mains into the flames. Every day brought its dreadful 
record of fire and slaughter. Each day the marauders 
grew bolder. People were butchered at the very gates 
of Ligonier, then as far down as Bedford and Carlisle, 
until terror had depopulated all the out-settlements, and 
turned the new clearings back into a solitude again, 

Meantime, news of the uprising had reached the sea- 
board and Colonel Bouquet, with five hundred men, was 
on his way to Fort Pitt. His march called back the 
scattered war-parties from their work of destruction, 
to stop him if they could. In vain they hung upon his 
flanks. His vigilance bafiied all their plans. Thus, 
as Bouquet advanced the savages fell back, first from 
around Bedford, then from before Ligonier ; gathering 
strength, however, as they went, for one determined ef- 
fort to stop him, when once he should be hopelessly en- 
tangled in the woods. 

It came at a place called Bushy Bun, where the In- 
dians made one of their most furious onsets. With the 
English it was now do or die ; for if defeated here they 
were in danger of being cut off to a man. So, though 
greatly outnumbered, they fought for two days with des- 
perate bravery, before victor}^ declared for either side. 
The defeated savages then disappeared. This victory had 
been won only with the loss of one hundred and twenty- 
three ofiicers and men, but it cleared the Avay to Fort 
Pitt, besides putting an end to the war in this quarter. 

At Detroit Dalzell's reinforcement emboldened the 
garrison to make a night sally upon Pontiac's camp, hop- 
ing thereby to liaise the siege. It was a dismal failure. 
Forewarned of what was intended, the Indians drove the 
assailants back to the fort with severe loss.^ 



PONTIAC'S WAR, 1763 89 

The siege had now dragged along from early May well 
into September, and the hunting season was at hand. 
Thus quietly to sit down before a place, for months to- 
gether, was something unheard of in Indian warfare. 
Signs of a breaking up began to show themselves in 
Pontiac's camp. Those of his followers who had come 
there from long distances began to desert him in large 
and small bodies. Seeing his army thus daily dissolv- 
ing, Pontiac himself withdrew to the Maumee, after giv- 
ing out that he would renew the Avar in the spring. 

The next year (1764) Colonel Bouquet marched from 
Fort Pitt to the Sandusky Plains with one force, while 
Colonel Bradstreet went up the lakes with another. The 
object of these expeditions was to carry the war into the 
enemy's country, redeem the captives taken the previous 
summer, and make the savages feel the power they had 
provoked. At Presquisle Bradstreet compelled the Dela- 
wares, Shawnees, and other Indians to make peace. 

Pontiac's war left the Indians of the West Avorse hum- 
bled than they had been before. Stung by defeat, the 
haughty chief quitted his old haunts for an asylum among 
the Illinois. Here he Avas treacherously slain at Cahokia, 
in 1769, by an Indian Avho had been bribed to do the 
deed. Like Philip, the great Wampanoag, A\diom he re- 
sembled, Pontiac died by the hand of one of his OAvn race. 
That generation saAv only the horrors he caused ; ours 
sees the grandeur of the champion even in the savage. 

1 French traders gave otit that they in 1675. See Hubbard's and Mather's 

would soon be in possession of the coun- contemporary histories of this war. 

try again. * Pontiac's Conspiracy has been 

- Endless Moitntains, early Indian treated of at length by Parkman and 

name for the Alleghanies, still to be read others. 

on old maps. ^ Western posts. There were ten of 

^ Philip's War, a striking episode in these : viz., Sandusky, Presquisle, Le 

the history of New England, broke out Boeuf, Venango, Duquesne, on the Ohio 



90 



POISTTIAC'S WAK, 17()B 



line ; Detroit, Michilimackinac, and St. 
Joseph, on the lakes ; Fort Miami, on the 
Maumee, where Fort Wayne, Ind.. now 
stands, and Ouatonon, on the Wabash, 
near Lafayette, Ind. 

« Fort Detroit had originally in- 
closed all there was of the settlement, 
military and civil, so that there were 
many houses inside the walls, as well as 
outside. 

'' At Le BcEur the garrison escaped 
by cutting a hole through the block- 



house, at the back, while the Indians, 
after setting it on fire, kept shooting into 
it from the front. About half the men 
got to Fort Pitt. The rest starved by the 
way. Venango was easily taken, and all 
the garrison massacred. 

^ Alexander Henry's Travels in 
New York and the Indian Territories. 
New York, 1809. 

^ Dalzell himself was killed in this 
sortie, the failure of which greatly dis- 
couraged the garrison. 



SECOND EPOCH 
THE ADVANCE INTO THE AVEST 

" The world could ill spare one of the pioneers." — President Eliot. 



THE HUNTERS OF KENTUCKY' 

"And tall, and strong, and swift of foot were they " 

rPHE great prize for which this great war had been 
-*- fought was now ours, and it was not ours. True, the 
French had been got rid of, but there were the Indians 
still. Would they submit to see the whites take up lands 
in the Ohio valley or not ? Fifty years of strife, millions 
spent, thousand of lives sacrificed, were the answer to 
this question. No people ever fought with greater de- 
termination, or made the victory more costly to their 
conquerors. 

AVho, then, would first brave the perils of this disputed 
ground for the sake of ncAV homes ? 

Up to this time we have seen travel following closely 
the lines of Indian populations. In other words, it has 
been governed by the laws of trade. The scene now 
suddenly shifts to the southern bank of the Ohio, where 
there were almost no Indians, and therefore very little 
trade — that is, resident Indians, for of roving Indians 
there were always plenty in the hunting season. 

One squalid Shawnee village is indeed found on the 
Ohio, opposite the Scioto. Some discover a second on 
the Kentucky. But these roving people were only ten- 
ants at will '' — tributaries of the powerful Iroquois, fear 
of whom alone kept them from strengthening themselves 
in Kentucky. Indeed, when their masters called them 
to account for being there at all, they very humbly ex- 
plained that, when going down the Ohio many years be- 



94 THE HUNTERS OF KENTUCKY 

fore, in quest of new homes, they had been stopped at 
the Scioto by order of the Iroquois, " who," said they, 
" shook us by the hair of our heads, and fixed us there, 
charging us to live in peace with the English." 

These dreaded Iroquois once claimed all as far down 
as the mouth of the Teiinessee, but had given up their 
title to the English (1768). At best it was a flimsy one, 
especially as the Iroquois were unable to give peaceable 
possession'^ with it. The English title, however, first as 
part of Virginia, next as reconquered territory, and 
lastly as vacant land, seemed unusually good and suffi- 
cient in this case. 

But the tribes of the great Ohio valley, north and 
south, sternly Avarned off all intruders. From an un- 
known time they had hunted the buffalo among the rich 
bottoms and savannas of Kentucky, and this right, con- 
firmed by long custom, they would not now give up. 
Being old enemies, when they met they fought together, 
so that Kentucky was perhaps as often their battle- 
ground as hunting-ground. Very little more is known 
of it. These deadly combats, far from their own villages, 
are supposed to have given Kentucky its forbidding name 
of the " Dark and Bloody Ground." 

Yet, however they may have fought together, they re- 
sisted, as one man, the coming in of the whites, as they 
foresaw that their hunting-grounds would be lost to 
them. So, for many a long, weary 3'ear, Kentucky kept 
its name of dread undiminished. And with this threat- 
ening cloud hanging over it, ]ike another Promised Land, 
into which men may look, but not enter, it lay in all its 
peerless beauty a splendid waste. 

There is nothing commonplace about the history of 
Kentucky. It has, to a charm, the picturesque qualities 



THE HUNTERS OF KENTUCKY 95 

of personal adventure. The story is therefore deeply in- 
teresting, even to its smallest details. 

That stray traders may have gone into Kentucky be- 
tween 1730 and 1750 as easily as into Ohio or Tennes- 
see, is more than probable. But that is all that can be 
said of men Avho have left no 

" Footprints on the sands of time." 

Thomas Walker,^ of Albemarle County, Virginia, was the 
first white man to visit Kentucky (1750) with a broader 
purpose. We may call him an intelligent exjDlorer, since 
a more or less thorough examination of the country seems 
to have been his first business. On one of the branches 
of the Cumberland a settlement, even, is laid down by 
his name on a map of the time. He gave their present 
name to the Cumberland River ^ and Mountains, and also 
to the Big Sandy ; " so that of him Ave not only do find 
definite traces, but find them quickly folloAved up. 

Then again, Ave have seen Christopher Gist going into 
Kentucky the very next year (1751), for the purpose of 
locating lands for the Ohio Company. We can Avell im- 
agine Avhat accounts he must have carried back to his 
home on the Yadkin. In Virginia capitalists Avere schem- 
ing ; in North Carolina backAvoodsmen talking. But the 
French War soon sternly called cA^ery man to the de- 
fence of his OAvn fireside before he could indulge in 
dreams of adA^enture. Still, these things Avere by no 
means forgotten. 

After the AA^ar some roving hunters struck out across 
the mountains again, even pushing on into the tremen- 
dous gorges of Cumberland Gap, and so discovering that 
great gatcAvay, through Avhich the first emigration fought 
its AA^ay into Kentucky. These men Avere knoAvn in the 



96 



THE HUNTEKS OF KENTUCKY 



settlements as " Long Hunters," from their being out a 
whole season, trapping and hunting. They, and others 
like them, were the pioneers of Kentucky. 

To get permanent settlers into Kentucky implied a long 
leap ahead of anything like a regulated moving up of 
population from the East. That army never retreated. 




CUMBERLAND GAP. 



But for such a long leap, almost in the dark, as one 
might say, there must always be a secure foothold, as 
well as a safe landing. These were found in the new 
settlements now springing up along the Holston, in East 
Tennessee. Few and feeble as they were, they proved 
the prop and stay of Kentucky, in her weakest hour. 
By this route John Finley made his Avay to the Ken- 



THE HUNTERS OF KENTUCKY 



97 



tiicky River in 1767. His return was, doubtless, a fire- 
brand in every lowly cabin along the Yadkin ; for in 
May, 1769, six stout woodsmen, of whom Finley was one, 
set out on a hunting and prospecting tour to Kentucky. 

These six men belonged to a class formed to battle 
with the wilderness. As a class they became extinct with 
it. Nothing of the graces of civilized life they knew ; 
but with hardship and danger they were familiar from the 
cradle. These 

had made robust '^ 

men of them — 

menoiiron ./ 

thews and sin- 
ews. They lived 
mostly by hunt- 
ing, as the Ind- 
ians did, and 
like them were 
more deeply 
read in nature's 
books than 
man's. A sturdy 
honesty distin- 
guished one and 

all. Every man's door was unbarred to admit the stran- 
ger ; every one stood ready to lend his neighbor a helping 
hand. AVeak outposts of advancing civilization, insensi- 
bly they fell into more or less barbarous ways. The 
best hunter was the most useful citizen ; the best wife, 
she who could hoe as well as spin. Though each man 
tilled his little patch of ground, the drudgery of the farm 
mostly fell to the women and boys. It is here we dis- 
cover the backwoodsman's distinguishing trait. Other 
7 




DANIF:I, BOONE. 



98 THE HUNTERS OF KENTUCKY 

frontier folk were farmers first of all ; lie was more hunter 
than farmer. And here, again, he resembled the Indian. 
The term " backwoodsman " is therefore highly descrip- 
tive. Nothing indeed could be better. 

Daniel Boone,* the leader of this little band, has 
passed into history as the representative backwoods- 
man. 

These hunters wore garments suited to rough work 
and weather, partly borrowed from the Indians, partly 
their own invention, but certainly the one distinctive 
American costume ever worn by our people. It was no 
less picturesque than appropriate. Each man wore on 
his head a raccoonskin cap, of home make, Avith the aui- 
mals bushy tail dangling down over the left ear, which 
gave the wearer a very rakish look indeed. His outer 
garment, in all weather, was a fringed deerskin hunting- 
frock, long in the skirts, open in front, and gathered in at 
the waist by a broad leathern belt. His legs were pro- 
tected by fringed deerskin leggings, and his feet by 
moccasins. This dress could not be easily torn by stiff 
briars, like woollens, or so soon worn out Avith use. It 
was almost as tough as the man himself, and when the 
owner was out on the hunting-path it was never taken 
off. 

The equipments Avere equally rude, equally serviceable. 
A Avell-filled powder-horn hung lightly across the shoul- 
der, where the hunter could readily grasp it, quickly jerk 
out the Avooden stopper Avitli his teeth, and measure out 
the proper charge to a kernel, or simply pour the priming 
into the pan of his long, heavy, flint-lock rifle, as it lay 
in the holloAV of his left arm, Avith his left hand tightly 
grasping the small of the breech. If life or death hung 
on the rapidity of his motions, by letting the breech 



THE HUNTERS OF KENTUCKY 99 

fall heavily to the ground the piece might be risked to 
prime itself. When firing from behind a tree, the hunter 
always turned his back to it to load. 

In addition to these white man's weapons, every hunter 
carried an Indian's tomahawk, at his right side, very use- 
ful for clearing his way through tangled thickets or blaz- 
ing a path through the wilderness of trees as he went, as 
well as for dealing deadly blows in single combat. At 
the left side, he carried a long, heavy, keen-edged hunt- 
ing-knife, so formidable in the hands of an athletic man, 
skilled in its use, that from the tirst the Kentuckians 
were known to the Indians as the Long Knives. 

But the rifle was always his favorite weapon. Accus- 
tomed from boyhood to the use of it, the men grew up to 
be the best marksmen in the world. A British officer 
has related that, at their shooting-matches, he had fre- 
quently seen one man hold out a board for the others to 
lire at, not only in his hand, but between his knees. To 
throw away a charge of powder was more than a fault ; 
it was disgrace. 

Dr. Doddridge has left a sketch of these hunters as 
graphic as it is brief. "I have often seen them," he 
says, " get up early in the morning, when the autumn 
leaves had fallen, and frosts killed the undergrowth, 
walk hastily out, look anxiously to the woods, and snuff 
the autumnal winds with the highest rapture ; then re- 
turn into the house, and cast a quick and attentive look 
at the rifle, which was always suspended to a joist by a 
couple of buck's horns, or little forks. The hunting-dog, 
understanding his master's intentions, would wag his tail, 
and by every blandishment in his power express his 
readiness to accompany him to the woods. A day was 
soon appointed for the march to the camping-place. 



100 



THE HUNTERS OF KENTUCKY 



Two or three horses, furnished with pack-saddles, were 
loaded with flour, Indian meal, blankets, and everything 
else requisite for the hunter's use." 

These men spoke of the hardships they had faced with 
a shrug ; dangers they laughed at. We might almost 
say that the spirit of adventure was born in them, and 
nursed with their mothers' milk. The first buffalo met 
with furnished them bed and bedding, as well as meat. 
Bestriding the huge carcass in triumph, out came the 
sharp hunting-knife, and off' was flayed the shaggy hide. 

A few choice cuts 
were quickly re- 
moved ; flint and 
steel struck a fire ; 
a sharpened stick 
held the collops to 
the blaze till done 
to the hunter's 
turn, when fingers 
took the place of 
knives and forks, 
until the cravings 
of hunger were 
fully satisfied. Then, wrapped up in his robe, stretched 
out with his feet to the fire, no king in his palace slept 
more soundly, or awoke feeling himself half so truly a 
monarch as this simple backwoodsman did. 

Such a man was Daniel Boone. And this had been 
his life. Cast upon nature for a livelihood, he and his 
rude comrades were, in habits, weapons, dress, a curious 
blending of white and savage, of civilized and uncivil- 
ized man. In some respects, the men who, for the most 
part, make the early history of Kentucky, maybe said to 




PICTURED ROCK. 



THE HUNTERS OF KENTUCKY 101 

have been instruments for civilization, in spite of them- 
selves. 

Boone was tliirty-four when he started off on his long 
joiTrney. His party entered Kentucky at the southeast 
corner, reaching the upper waters of the Kentucky in 
June. From a rocky height here they looked down upon 
a scene too sublime for words, and here they resolved 
to pitch their first camp. They were soon discovered. 
Boone, with one companion, having been surprised and 
taken, while absent hunting, the rest broke up their 
camp in haste, and made all speed back to the settle- 
ments. Fortunately the captives succeeded in making 
their escape, only to find themselves deserted by their 
panic-stricken companions. 

Boone's resolute character is now well shown in the 
determination to stay where he was, Indians or no Ind- 
ians. And his was the governing Avill. 

Here, then, they passed the long, dreary winter unmo- 
lested and uneventfully until January, when one day two 
men were discovered cautiously approaching the camp. 
Boone sharj)ly challenged them : " Halloa ! strangers, 
who are you ? " " White men and friends," was the swift 
answer. One of these wayfarers proved to be Boone's 
own brother, who had come to seek him, as well as to fol- 
low up the work of exploration, so well begun. 

Before spring came only the two Boones were left alive. 
One man had been shot and scalped, the other lost in 
the woods. The younger brother then went back to the 
Yadkin for supplies, leaving Daniel all alone in Kentucky. 
This was on May 1st. By the last of July tlie younger 
Boone, who seems to have been of the same intrepid make 
as his brother, rode into the old camp on one horse, lead- 
ing another. 



102 THE HUNTERS OF KENTUCKY 

The two men then set about exploring the country be- 
tween the Kentucky and the Cumberland, wdth a method 
which leads us to think they were doing so, not alone for 
their own gratification, but as the chosen agents for 
some far more sagacious persons in the settlements. 
This w^e must believe was really the case. 

When spring came round again (1771), the explorers 
started for home, with the spoils of the hunt strapped on 
the backs of their horses. 

It was learned from these explorations that the central, 
or wdiat is since known as the Blue Grass, country was 
by far the best timbered and most fertile part of Ken- 
tucky. 

For twenty years, therefore, Kentucky had been more 
or less visited. Boone had doubtless carried back much 
useful information about the country which men eagerly 
seized upon. More serious efforts followed, at once, 
though their order was now reversed, for Virginia only 
sent out some surveyors, while in North Carolina a colo- 
nizing company was formed. 

This Transylvania Company, as it was called, after 
buying up nearly half of Kentucky, and all the best of it, 
from the Cherokees, started a party of settlers in Sep- 
tember, 177'^, and the two Boones and their families went 
back with them. The history of this short-lived land 
company will be given in another chapter. It is men- 
tioned noAV to show how early organized effort was directed 
to Kentucky, and how easy it was to start a land boom, 
even at that early day, in a comj^aratively newly settled 
region. 

Boone led this little colony toward Cumberland Gap 
over his old trail. All were well armed, and all well 
mounted, women as well as men. In advance rode the 



THE HUNTERS OF KENTUCKY 103 

watchful scouts, each man's trusty rifle lying across his 
saddle-bow ready for instant use. Sharply the dark lines, 
traced through the primitive forest by the swift mountain 
streams, were scanned for any sign of smoke, and even 
the circling flight of ravenous buzzards above the tree- 
tops instantly drew eager eyes to the spot, to which the 
offal of buffalo or deer had attracted these winged 
scavengers of the Avilderness. Then followed a hasty 
council, a halt, until it was decided safe to move on. 
Then, after tightening their saddle-girths, and once more 
looking to the primings of their rifles, these sun-burned 
men, of iron sinews, rode on toward the suspected spot, 
alert and silent. 

The long train of sure-footed pack-horses, shaggy, agile, 
patient little beasts, progenitors of tlie celebrated Ken- 
tucky stock, jogged on behind, and behind these again, 
the lumbering herd of milch cows, young cattle, and swine 
was being driven along by some of the younger men and 
l)oys. In this manner, the little cavalcade wound slowly 
in and out of the rocky gorges of the Cumberland Moun- 
tains, keeping a sharp look-out for any sign of lurking 
redskins. This was the way of emigration one hundred 
years ago. 

So large a body, strung out over several miles, could 
not fail to betray its own presence to the keen-eyed, quick- 
witted, bloodthirsty savages. Their opportunity came 
while the moving caravan was thus stretched out among 
the mountains. The herd having lagged some miles in 
the rear, the eager redskins fell furiously upon that, and 
scattered it in the woods. Six of the cattle-guard were 
killed outright ; the seventh made his escape, though 
sorely wounded. 

Of course, the wily savages well knew that this mode 



104 



THE HUNTERS OF KENTUCKY 



of attack would be sure to turn the main body back. 
When they had buried the dead, one of whom Avas Boone's 
oldest son, the whole party sadly retraced its steps to 
the Clinch River. 

This was the sort of school in which the pioneers of 
Kentucky were trained. 

Nevertheless, by the next June (1774), James Harrod ^ 
had come down the Ohio as far as the Falls, had gone up 
Salt River to its head, and finding there a situation to 
his liking, had hastily put up a log-cabin — the very first 
civilized habitation in Kentucky, as distinguished from 
hunters' camps. The perilous entrance, by the way of 
Cumberland Gap, had now become a fixed fact. And, 
already, the Falls'' pointed out the destined landing-plac: 
for settlers coming down the Ohio — sure forerunner of 
the coming metroj^olis. It is true that, as yet, James 
Harrod's poor log-cabin was all that Kentucky could 
boast, and even he had hardly got a roof over his head 
before he was called away to defend it. Let us follow 
him, for the hour had now struck, when it was to be de- 
cided whether Kentucky should be held or not. 



' Kentucky is said to be an Iroquois 
word, meaning " hunting-grounds." 
Cuttawa, the Cherokee name for the 
Kentnclvy River, is said to signify " The 
Great Wilderness." These are, how 
ever, by no means the only definitions. 

2 " For the north side, which they 
still occupy, is more than they have any 
title to, having often been moved from 
p.lace to place by the Six Nations, and 
never having any right of soil there." 

. . "The Shawnees, to my know! 
edge, grasped at lands on both sides of 
the Ohio. " — Sir Wm. Johnson, Doc. 
Hist. N. Y.,\., 990, 991, 992. 

3 By the treaty of Fort Stanwix. 
For the boundary, see Doc. Hist, of S. 



F., with map, i., 587. Franklin claimed 
that Virginia had no right of soil in 
Kentucky till this treaty was made— that 
her western boundary was the Alle- 
ghanies. 

^ Dr. Thomas Walker was exploring 
the Holston valley as early as 1748. He 
left a MS. journal of his Kentucky tour. 
See also Dinwiddie Papeis i. , 412. Walk- 
er's settlement is put down on MitchelVs 
Map of 1755. It could hardly have been 
more than a camp. This expedition of 
Walker's comes so close after the organi- 
zation of the Ohio Company as to sug- 
gest having been prompted by it. 

^ The Cumberland was previously 
known as the Shawuee River, as the Ten- 



WHEELING, 1770 



105 



nessee had been as the Cherokee ; named 
for the second son of George II. 

^ Big Sandy ; Indian name Chatter- 
awah. 

^ Danikl Boone was born in Penusr^yl- 
vauia, in 1735. whence his English par- 
ents migrated to the Yadkin settlements 
about 1754 ; Boone went from Kentucky 
to Missouri, 1794. where he died, 182i). 
See Filson's account of him ; John M. 
Peck's lAfe of Boone ; The Making of 
the Great West, 211, note A beech tree 
on which Daniel Boone carved his name 
in rude letters lb3 years ago, was a 
unique part of Teimessee's contribution 



to the World's Fair of 1894. The tree 
was long a landmark near Jonesboro', 
Tenn. 

" James IIarkod was a Virginian. 
Like Boone, he lived to see Kentucky a 
populous State, in which, unUke Boone, 
he became a contented and prosperous 
citizen. 

^ Falls of the Cuio. Dr. John Oon- 
olly, sometime commandant at Fort 
Pitt, hired Thomas Bulhtt, a Virginia 
surveyor, to lay out for him four hundred 
thousand acres at the falls. A patent 
issued December, 1773, but war put a 
stop to settlement there at this time. 



WHEELING, 1770 

Nearly coeval with these events was the coming of a 
man, of the same intrepid stamp as the Boones, to build 
his solitary cabin on the site of Wheeling. This was 
Ebenezer Zane, one of three brothers who first visited 
this spot in the year 1769, and came back to settle perma- 
nently the next year.^ The Zanes are said to have re- 
moved here from the south branch of the Potomac, near 
Moorfield, though Major Denny asserts that Ebenezer 
was brought up among the Wyandots.^ 

However that may be, Zane had chosen one of the 
strategic points of the Ohio Valley, though this fact 
could hardly have been known to him at the time. All 
he probably cared to know was that he had found an ad- 
vantageous spot for trading with the interior of Ohio. It 
was where the crowding hills left scant room for a town 
site, but when the Ohio was low it was practically the 
head of navigation, even for tiat or keel boats. Of course, 
its further advantage as a point of departure for the East 
had not then been discovered, or that otlier advantage it 



106 THE BATTLE OF POINT PLEASANT 

presently assumed as a stopping-place for emigrants de- 
scending the river from above. 

Dunmore's campaign, to be presently related, led to 
the erection of a block-house at this point, first called 
Fort Fincastle, and later Fort Henry, in honor of the 
Revolutionary patriot, Patrick Henry. -^ 

1 V; E. Hist. Gen. Reg., vol. xiv., p. 236. s gge rotter's Am. Monthly, vol. iv., 

2 See Denny's Journal, in Memoirs 110. 
Hist. Soc. of Penna., vol. vii. 



THE BATTLE OF POINT PLEASANT' 

{October 10, 1774) 

Angry at seeing the whites intrenched in their hunting- 
grounds, the Ohio Indians made war against them. The 
Ohio being the great natural highway to Kentucky, their 
idea was to make it so dangerous that the tide of travel 
Avould be turned backward. To effect this, they began 
waylaying, robbing, and even killing travellers. In 
fact, no one could pass up or down without running the 
gauntlet of the Shawnee villages at the Scioto. These in- 
juries soon set the whole frontier in a blaze. 

These things being laid before him, Governor Lord 
Dunmore determined to chastise the offenders, and throw 
open the Ohio. To this end he called out the colony 
militia to meet at the mouth of the Great Kanawha.'- 

In obedience to this call, fifteen hundred men assembled 
above Wheeling, under Dunmore, Avhile a thousand more, 
under General Andrew Lewis, encamped at the place of 
rendezvous itself. Here Lewis received an order chang- 
ing the point of junction to the vicinity of the towns on 
the Scioto. 



THE BATTLE OF POINT PLEASANT 



107 



Dnnmore moved down tlie river to the Hockhocking, 
where he built Fort Gower, thence in the direction of the 
Shawnee towns. 

While the English forces were thus separated, and be- 
fore Lewis had left the Kanawha, a thousand Avarriors, 
led by Cornstalk, a renowned Shawnee chief, fell upon 



Ur.::*=ri. r^S* 




AN OHIO RIVER FLAT-BOAT. 



him with all the fury that a firm resolution to exterminate 
the whites could inspire. All day the battle raged doubt- 
fully. During the thick of it Cornstalk's voice was often 
heard shouting to his braves; " Be strong, be strong ! " 

During the night the Indians retreated. Both sides 
lost heavily. Though unsuccessful, it certainly was a bold 
stroke, planned with consummate skill, and executed with 



108 



THE BATTLE OF POINT PLEASANT 



that celerity and dash which made the Indians so terrible 
to their foes. If they had defeated Lewis, the detachment 
north of the Ohio would probably have had the combined 
tribes, far and near, fall upon them. 

Lewis, being reinforced, marched to join Dunmore, as 
first ordered. Cowed by defeat, the hostile Indians, ex- 
cept the Mingoes, hastened to make peace. The answer 
of Logan,^ a Mingo chief, when urged to lay down his 
arms, has long been pointed to as a specimen of savage 
eloquence, unexcelled by anything of the kind in history. 
Nothing could be more pathetic than the simple words 
with which he concludes the recital of his wrongs : " Who 
is there to mourn for Logan ? Not one." 

Having, as he supposed, made the Ohio safe to travel, 
Dunmore returned to Virginia in triumph, leaving small 
garrisons at the Kanawha, and at Fort Fincastle, now 
Wheeling, to guard the river. It was indeed time for 
Dunmore to hasten home ; for echoes of the approaching 
conflict with England had reached even these far frontiers. 

While halting at Fort Gower on their homeward march, 
the troops declared, on November 5th, that, " as the love 
of liberty and attachment to the real interests and just 
rights of America outweigh every other consideration, we 
resolve that we will exert every power within us for the 
defence of American liberty, and for the support of her 
just rights and privileges." 



1 Pt. Pleasant, W. Va., occupies the 
site of the battle-ground. 

'^ Great Kanawha. This river was 
also a back route to the settlements on 
the Upper James and Yadkin. The early 
spelling is almost always Kanhawa. 

3 Logan (Tah-gah-jute) took his Eng- 
lish name from Secretary James Logan, 
of Pennsylvania. Said to be a Cayuga, or, 
in backwoods vernacular, a Mingo, that 



being the name given to seceders from the 
Iroquois villages, who had followed the 
streams leading to the Ohio. In the 
spring of 1774 all of Logan's family were 
wickedly murdered by the whites in re- 
venge for other injuries. This turned 
Logan from a friend to an enemy. He 
would not attend the treaty, but sent 
Lord Dunmore the speech which fol- 
lows. 



LOGAN'S SPEECH 109 



LOGAN'S SPEECH ' 

" I APPEAL to any white man to say, if ever he entered 
Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat ; if 
ever he came cold and naked, and he clothed him not ? 
During the course of the last long and bloody war, Lo- 
gan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. 
Such was my love for the whites, that my countrymen 
pointed as they passed, and said, ' Logan is the friend of 
the white men.' I had even thought to have lived with 
you but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, 
the last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, murdered 
all the relations of Logan, not even sparing my women 
and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the 
veins of any living creature. This called on me for re- 
venge. I have sought it ; I have killed many ; I have 
fully glutted my vengeance. For my country, I rejoice 
at the beams of peace. But do not harbor a thought 
that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He 
will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there 
to mourn for Logan ? Not one." 

1 Logan's Speech gained quick curren- it at Lord Dunmore's, in Williamsburg, 

cy, first appearing in the Virginia Ga- Since then, where is the American school- 

zette of February 4, 1775. It was also boy who has not spoken it ? Cresap has 

published in the same month in New been warmly defended against Logan's 

York, with some variations ; and still charge. See Patterns Monthly, February, 

later by Jefferson, in his Xotes on Vir- 1875, etc. 
ginia. He said, he believed he learned 



110 A KENTUCKY STATION 



A KENTUCKY STATION 

The resort to arms being decided, settlement was re- 
smned. By the next spring, Boone, who had just been 
working a road from the Kentucky to the Holston, for 
the land company, began building for it (April 1, 1775), 
on the south side of the Kentucky, the little quadrangle 
of log-cabins called after him Boonesborough. In his 
own story, Boone says that his wife and daughters were 
the first wdiite women who had ever stood on the banks 
of the Kentucky River. 

This station was completed by June 1. Next, Benja- 
min Logan, ^ a soldier of the French War, followed close 
with his station of St. Asaphs,^ near the present town of 
Stanford. Harrod's we have already mentioned. Here 
we see the first foundations of Kentucky. 

Of this trio of settlements Boonesborough was the 
capital and stronghold. Harrod and Boone were barely 
within supporting distance of each other, but Harrod 
and Logan were nearer. It was, indeed, a bold thing 
thus to erect three such dangerous outposts, where they 
could have no hope save in themselves. Let us, then, 
look at their means of defence. 

Boone had inclosed a plot of ground two hundred 
and fifty feet long, by one hundred and twenty-five 
broad in this way : At each corner, a log-house, two 
stories high, was built so as to project beyond the line, 
and so to flank it. Between these, other log-cabins formed 
the sides, in part, the rest being made up of pickets, 
twice a man's height, a foot thick, sharpened at the top, 
and squared so as to fit closely together. These were 
^et in a trench, first dug to receive them, and then filled 



A KENTUCKY STATION 



111 



up. At every few steps the pickets were loop-holed. 80, 
also, were the cabins, from which the defenders could 
rake the outside of the stockade, in case of an assault. 
Thick slabs covered the roof, and a pair of folding gates, 
similar to great barn-doors, let the people in or out. 

This station stood at about sixty yards from the Ken- 
tucky River. As long as cannon could not be brought to 
bear against it, the inmates had little to fear, except 




POSITIONS OP KENTUCKY STATIONS. 



from hunger or fire. Over and over again did these 
rude Avooden castles prove the salvation of Kentucky, 
for though often hard pressed, they were seldom taken. 
In them we see the cradle of a robust people. 

And the rough clearing, that dreary stretch of grisly 
stumps hewed out of the forest around the station. 
Here men might be seen planting or hoeing, under 
cover of the station and its rifles. On the skirt, a short 
rifle-shot oft', stood the forest — dark, silent, threatening. 



112 THE RESCUE OF THE CHILDREN 

This was the dead-line, where lurked the savage. And 
now and then there Avent forth into the forest those who 
never came back. 

' Benjamin Logan, born iu Pennsyl- ^ gt. Asaphe, originally a bishopric of 

vania, subsequently removed to Augusta North Wales. 

County, Va., later to the Holston. His 
father was of Irish birth. 



THE RESCUE OF THE CHILDREN 

Life at the stations, during the early stages of settle- 
ment, comes back to us with startling distinctness in 
some such tale as the following : 

On July 14, 1776, Betsy Callaway, her sister Frances, 
and Jemima, a daughter of Daniel Boone, the two 
last being only about fourteen years old, carelessly 
crossed the river opposite to Boonesborough, in a canoe, 
at a late hour in the afternoon. The trees and shrubs, 
on the opposite bank, formed a thicket that came down to 
the water's edge. Unconscious of danger, the girls were 
playing and splashing the water with their paddles, until 
the canoe had drifted quite near the shore. Five stout 
Indians lay there concealed, one of whom crept down the 
bank as noiselessly and stealthily as a serpent, until he 
could reach the rope at the bow, which he quickly seized 
and turned the canoe up-stream, away from the station. 
The loud shrieks of the captured girls were heard there, 
but too late for their rescue. 

One of the rescuing party tells the rest of the story. 
"Next morning by daylight we were on the track, but 
found they had totally prevented our following them, by 
walking some distance apart through the thickest canes 
they could find. We observed their course, and on 



THREE GREAT LAND SCHEMES 113 

which side we had left their sign, and travelled upwards 
of thirty miles. We imagined that they would be less 
cautious, and made a turn to cross their trace, and had 
gone but a few miles before we found their tracks in a 
buffalo path. AVe pursued, and, after going ten miles 
farther, overtook them just as they were kindling a fire. 
Our study had been more to get the prisoners, without 
giving the Indians time to murder them after they dis- 
covered us, than to kill them. 

" We discovered each other nearly at the same time. 
Four of us fired, and all rushed upon them, which pre- 
vented their carrying away anything except one shotgun, 
without ammunition. Mr. Boone and myself had a 
pretty fair shoot, just as they began to move off. I am 
well convinced that I shot one through, and the one he 
shot dropped his gun ; mine had none. The place was 
very thick with canes, and being so much elated on re- 
covering the three little broken-hearted girls, prevented 
our making further search. We sent them off' without 
their moccasins, and not one of them with so much as a 
knife or a tomahawk." ^ 

1 Floyd's narrative : Butler's Kentucky, 32, 33. 



THREE GREAT LAND SCHEMES 

It must not be supposed that, during all this time, the 
Ohio Valley was left to the hap-hazard efforts of a few 
errant backwoodsmen, alike eager to get away from civ- 
ilization and the tax-gatherer. 

We have seen that the attempt of the Ohio Company 
to get control there had brought on war with France. 
The war killed that project. After the war, a new 
8 



114 THREE GREAT LAND SCHEMES 

scheme was brought forward, having the same object in 
view. Sir William Johnson, of New York, then Indian 
agent. Governor Franklin, of Pennsvlvania, and others 
were interested in it. Benjamin Franklin was their 
agent in London. These persons formed a company, 
with Thomas Walpole, a London banker, at its head, 
from whom the solicited tract took the name of Wal- 
pole's Grant. ^ 

There were violent disputes in the cabinet over this 
grant, but it finally passed the board in 1772, more 
through secret influence than upon its merits. This 
project was killed by the Revolution. 

The most interesting fact brought out by the discus- 
sion was Franklin's statement that five thousand fami- 
lies were then settled over the Alleghanies.^ They were 
expected to form the body of the proposed colony on 
the Ohio, and did, in fact, largely become the settlers of 
Kentucky. 

If Franklin's statement were true, there could hardly be 
found, we think, a more striking example of the migra- 
tory tendencies of the American people. This vanguard 
w^as only waiting for the signal, to move down into the 
Ohio Yalley. 

A third project more nearly concerns the founding of 
Kentucky, to which, indeed, the others looked, but did 
not attain. 

This was known as Henderson's Purchase, from the 
leading spirit in it, later as the Colony of Transylvania.'^ 
The purchase included lands lying between the Ken- 
tucky and Cumberland, and was made of the Cherokees, 
as the presumed owners, thus wholly ignoring the claims 
of Virginia, as Walpole's Grant had done before it. 

Richard Henderson ^ set up his land oflice at Boones- 



THREE GREAT LAND SCHEMES 



115 



borough. He then called upon the four infant stations 
to send delegates there to frame a code of laws for the 
colony, all four^ being within its limits. They met on 
May 23d, and enacted such laws as their lawless con- 
dition required. Leases of land were also made at this 
time, by Henderson, under the colony title. 

Virginia, however, disowned these titles ; so did North 




Carolina the original purchase from the Cherokees. 
Alarmed for their holdings, the Kentuckians now prayed 
Virginia to take them under her protection. The com- 
pany did the same thing to the Continental Congress. 
James Hogg, tlieir deputy, was told that, as his grant lay 
within the Virginia charter, he must settle it with the 
Virginians, Through the influence of Patrick Henry 



116 



A BRAVE DEED OF ARMS 



the colony was denied recognition, and, abandoned by 
everybody, it soon ceased to exist/' 

This history is notable as the last attempt to set up a 
proprietary government in the colonies. It is notable, 
again, for its evidence of the law-abiding instinct in men 
thus loosely thrown together. It shows us that this iso- 
lated little community, Avhicli made laws rifle in hand, was 
sound at the core. The instinct of self-preservation was 
first obeyed, then that of order, by an appeal to the 
popular voice. 



1 Walpole's Grant covered nearly all 
of what is now Kentucky, between tbe 
Great Kanawha and Scioto. The pro- 
fessed object was planting a colony, in 
a spot advantageous to Great Britain. 
The associates, however, expected great 
profits from their land sales to col- 
onists. Franklin urged, what actually 
happened later, that these colonists 
"could be poured down the Mississippi 
upon the lower country," in case of war. 
Sir Wm. Johnson was to have been gov- 
ernor. 

2 " From 1765 to 1T68, the king's sub- 
jects removed in great numbers from 
Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. 
over the mountains." A new wagon-road 
reduced the distance between Fort Cum- 
berland and the Redstone of the Monon- 
gahela from seventy to forty miles. 
Settlers flocked thither regardless of the 



Treaty of Paris (1763), by which the 
bounds between the settlements and the 
Indian hunting-grouuds were fixed. It 
was attempted to remove them, without 
avail, and Redstone (since Brownsville) 
thereafter became a point of departure 
for Kentucky, 

3 Transylvania is the name of an 
Austrian province ; possibly suggested 
here by Pennsylvania. 

^ RicHARB Henderson had been one 
of the associate judges of North Caro- 
lina ; he was a man of marked ability. 
His name is preserved in the county and 
town of Henderson, Ky. See note 6. 

'■' Boiling Spring had added a fourth 
station. 

« Henderson's COMPANY subsequently 
received a grant of two hundred thou- 
sand acres between Green River and the 
Ohio. 



A BRAVE DEED OF ARMS 

,. The tide of immigration Avas now setting more and 
more strongly into Kentucky. That this should be so, 
at a time when war with the mother-country was just be- 
ginning, is no less strange than true. 

Thus it chanced that one party of newcomers were en- 



A BRAVE DEED OF ARMS 117 

camped on tlie Elkhorn, when word reached them that 
the colonists had fought, and won, their first battle at 
Lexington.^ That name was accordingly given to the 
romantic spot where the startling news was first received. 
It thus commemorates two historic events — that of the 
battle and that of the founding. 

But now a new danger arose. In the Indians the 
Kentuckians had always an enemy at their doors. War 
now brought on them another. And the two now w^orked, 
hand in hand, for their destruction. This new enemy 
was the British posts, between the lakes and the Missis- 
sippi, only ten years back wrested from the French, and 
now once again become so many arsenals for the savages 
to sall}^ forth from upon the devoted settlements. 

Small parties of savages were constantly lurking in 
ambush around the stations, or waylaying the trails be- 
tween them, until it was no longer safe for a woman to go 
out to milk a cow, or a man to lead his horse to water. 
Nearly every day some riderless horse would come gallop- 
ing into the lonely clearing. Many of the new settlers 
were frightened away, leaving only the veteran pioneers, 
as undaunted as ever, yet not too confident of holding 
their own. All knew it would be a gallant fight, but the 
odds were terribly against them. Indeed, no one knew 
which way to look for relief. 

Kentucky was, in fact, in sore straits, had not a man 
been found for the crisis, whose very audacity triumphed 
over all sorts of obstacles, foreseen or unforeseen. This 
was George Rogers Clarke,^ originally a Virginian, now 
a Kentuckian, young, ardent, sanguine, and perhaps a 
trifle reckless withal. It was plain to him that Kaskas- 
kia, Yincennes, and Detroit should be taken or destroyed. 
But that was easier said than done. To most men such 



118 A BRAVE DEED OF ARMS 

a project would have seemed chimerical. Knowing this, 
Clarke very wisely kept his to himself. 

Clarke's one clear idea was that, if these posts could be 
taken, all this marauding would cease, as the Indians 
would then be kept at home. It was a maxim as old as 
history. But the means were so wofully inadequate that 
any other man than Clarke would have faltered. He, 
however, knew no such word as fail. 

Back in 1774, England had extended the bounds of 
Canada, so as to include the region between the Ohio, 
the Mississippi, and the lakes, now covered by the States 
of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. 
This was known as the Quebec Act. A military governor 
ruled over Canada, as in former times, only he was now 
English instead of French. The garrisons were also Eng- 
lish. It was distrust of the French population that had 
led the English government to make many concessions to 
prevent their taking sides with the Americans, who had 
their emissaries at Vincennes as well as at Montreal. No 
doubt Clarke counted much upon this secret sympathy, 
in what he now contemplated. 

Clarke had first to go to Williamsburg, Va., to get 
the requisite authority, then back to the frontiers for men. 
Convinced that men would not enlist for such a distant, 
if not Quixotic, expedition, he carefully concealed the 
real destination from them. After much trouble and de- 
lay, he finally got together some one hundred and fifty 
hardy borderers, with whom he came doAvn the Ohio from 
Fort Pitt, in May, 1778. Some families, bound for Ken- 
tucky, put themselves under his escort, as far as the Falls, 
where Clarke landed to build a block-house, desioned to 
be his base of supplies. Leaving these families here as 
a guard, Clarke again embarked for the lower Ohio. 



A BRAVE DEED OF ARMS 119 

During the winter and spring, these people left their 
post at Corn Island, landed on the Kentucky shore, and 
there began Louisville.^ 

June 28th, nine hundred and fifty miles from their 
starting-point, the party landed eleven miles below the 
mouth of the Tennessee.^ Here the boats were hid 
among the reeds, against their return. They then struck 
off through the woods for Kaskaskia, subsisting on what 
they could kill by the way, though sometimes driven to 
eat roots or go hungry. Fortunately, the route was an un- 
frequented one, and no Indians were met with ; so that 
the sudden appearance of the invaders before Kaskaskia, 
July 4th, was the first warning of their approach. There 
was no resistance. Clarke had only to march in. The 
settlements above at once submitted, the American flag 
was joyfully raised, and the authority of Virginia formally 
proclaimed. 

These settlements were not what they had been. 
Many of the old inhabitants had removed across the Mis- 
sissippi, after the English conquest .^ Those who re- 
mained received the Americans rather as friends than 
foes ; for their sympathies were with them in their 
struggle with England. Clarke soon learned that Vin- 
cennes was quite unguarded ; so, instead of sending an 
armed force, he sent an embassy there, which the inhab- 
itants received as willingly as the Kaskaskians had. 

Clarke now declared the government of Virginia es- 
tablished over all this region. Perhaps not for one mo- 
ment did he suspect that by this simple act he was giv- 
ing the United States final possession of it. Though it 
may be otherwise, it is not likely. Virginia (October, 
1778) then organized all the country between the Ohio, 
the Mississippi, and the lakes, as the County of the Illi- 



120 



A BRAVE DEED OF ARMS 



nois. And tlius the first government of Illinois, under 
our flag, was by Virginia, through Kentucky. This is 
what makes Clarke's conquest an epoch of history. ^ 

Clarke was a rude soldier, whose way with the Indians 
was to use hard words first, gentle afterwards. He was 
never their dupe or their servant. Though now unable 







THE GARRISON MARCHING OUT. 



to do all that he had at first designed, the Indians were 
so frightened that their bloody raids ceased for a time. 
Want of men and means alone prevented his marching 
on Detroit. He, however, kept up just as bold a front as 
if he had had plenty of both. 

When, therefore, in the autumn, Hamilton, the British 
commander at Detroit, came down the A\ abash, with a 



A BRAVE DEED OF ARMS 



121 



large force, Yincemies was garrisoned by only one man, 
besides the commanding officer, Hebn, though Hamil- 
ton did not know this. Emulating his own commander's 
audacity, Hebn declared that he wouki defend the place 
to the last, unless allowed the honors of war. This 
being granted him, the gate was flung open, to let Helm 
and his one soldier march out, with arms and baggage, 
while the beholders stared to think how they had been 
duped. 

The next winter, by a still more wonderful march, 
through a country overflowed by the Wabash for miles on 
every side, Clarke recaptured Vincennes. The story ' of 
what his men endured is almost beyond belief. For 
days together they were wading through mud and water, 
knee-deep, happy if by chance they could find a dry spot 
of ground on which to encamp at night. If the men fal- 
tered, Clarke would put himself in the van. If they mur- 
mured, he would cheer them ; and if they lagged, he 
would strike up a song. After exchanging a few shots 
Hamilton surrendered. " I knew," said Clarke, dryly, 
" that if I did not take him, he would take me." 



1 At Lexington, Mass., April 19, 
1775. 

'•* George Rogers Clarke, sometimes 
called the Haunibal of the West, on ac- 
count of his marches, commanded a 
company in Duumore's campaign of 
1774. (See Battle of Point Pleasant.) Be- 
sides the events narrated in this chapter, 
he saw service in Old Virginia, under 
Baron Steuben. But the West was the 
field in which he won most renown. In 
17S2 Clarke was in command of the Ken- 
tucky militia, with headquarters at Fort 
Nelson, Louisville. He died in poverty 
1818. 

3 Louisville was at first known only 
as The Falls. The first settlers moved 



into a fort, built by them at the foot of 
the present Twelfth Street. It came into 
corporate existence as a town iu 1780. 
It then had a population of some six 
hundred persons. The name is said to 
have been given in compliment to Louis 
XVI., whose queen was similarly hon- 
ored in the name of Marietta, O. Gen. 
G. E. Clarke, after his Wabash campaign, 
estabhshed his headquarters there, built 
Fort Nelson, and constructed a row- 
galley to patrol the Ohio, as far up as 
the Licking. Its earliest history, there- 
fore, is that of a military post, like Pitts- 
burg, nor did it become the first town iu 
Kentucky until some twenty years later. 
^ TuEV Landed at Fort Massac, an 



122 



boone's capture and escape 



abauclonecl work, built by the French to 
command the mouth of the Ohio. It 
stood on a high bluff overlooking the 
river, and is one of the reservations set 
apart by the United States in the Treaty 
of Greenville. 

s The deserting inhabitants built St. 
Louis. See Making of tJie Great West, 
p. 179. 



^ This epoch of history is further ex- 
plained in a succeeding chapter. 

^ The story is told in Major Bow- 
man's Journal, the original of which is 
in the library of the Kentucky Historical 
Society, Louisville ; also in CisVs Adver- 
tiser, Cincinnati, of May 6, 1846 ; and in 
a more or less abridged form in many 
other reprints. 



BOONE'S CAPTURE AND ESCAPE 

Meanwhile, the Ohio tribes kept harrying the Ken- 
tuckians as before. lu one of these raids Boone had been 
taken, while out hunting, and carried off in triumph to 
the great Shawnee town (Chillicothe) on the Little Miami. 
Whether he was alive or dead could not be learned ; but 
his wife mourned him as dead. 

One day a man, dressed like an Indian, came stagger- 
ing across the clearing at Boonesborough. This wretched- 
looking object was Boone. He had come, like one risen 
from the dead, to warn the unsuspecting settlers of their 
peril. 

Boone had seen, with fear, the ominous mustering in 
his village of four hundred Avarriors, all armed and 
painted for war. To his dismay he learned that they 
were going to attack his own home, Boonesborough. 

A hundred and sixty miles off, the station lay in fan- 
cied security. What was to be done ? His captors 
watched his every step, even though he had been adopted 
as one of themselves. His head was shaved, his face 
painted, his skin, they said, changed from white to red. 

Though to escape seemed nearly hopeless, Boone knew 
that, if he would save his friends, not a moment was to 
be lost. So, watching his opportunity, he fled. 



eoone's capture and escape 123 

lu a little less than five clajs he reached the station, 
more dead than alive, as, until he had pnt the Ohio be- 
tween himself and his pursuers, he neither dared to fire 
at a deer, nor light a fire, for fear the report or the smoke 
might betray him. In this race of life and death he had 
pushed human endurance to its farthest limits. Fortu- 
nately, however, he had outstripped his pursuers. Under 
Boone's skilful guidance, men, women, and even children 
set to work strengthening the place. Early in August 
(1778) the enemy appeared before it with an army. 
Boone had but fifty fighting men. A\^hen summoned to 
surrender he replied that he would fight so long as one 
was left alive. The attack then began. For twelve days 
the firing on both sides scarcely ceased, yet the brave 
little garrison repelled every assault. All this time, in- 
stead of crying and wringing their hands, the fearless 
Kentucky women stood side by side with the men, load- 
ing rifles, running bullets, bringing Avater, or nursing the 
wounded. Boone's own daughter was hit at his side. 

Finding Boonesborough too strong for them, the be- 
siegers retreated, with the loss of thirty-seven killed to 
the garrison s two. In his account of this affair Boone 
says, with grim humor, "We picked up one hundred and 
twenty-five pounds of bullets, besides what stuck in the 
logs of our fort, which is certainly a great proof of the 
enemy's industry." 

Despite this harassing warfare, people continued to 
flock into Kentucky, from Virginia especially, as if to 
escape the evils of war at home. A prisoner of war 
wrote to England that the number was amazing. He saw 
them leaving comfortable homes and plantations, which 
it had been the labor of their Avhole lives to clear and 
bring to perfection, cheerful and hapj^y, though nearly a 



124 boone's capture and escape 

thousand miles lay between them and Kentucky. Their 
mode of travelling, he says, " greatly resembles that of 
the patriarchs of old, for they take Avith them their 
horses, oxen, sheep, and other cattle, as likewise all kinds 
of poultry. I saw a family setting off for this new 
settlement, leaving behind them a neat habitation, sur- 
rounded with everything needful to make it the mansion 
of content and happiness." 

This was in the year 1779. 

We now find new stations springing up on all sides. 
In April, 1779, a block-house was built to defend " the 
three rows of cabins," known as Lexington. Five miles 
above, Bryan's Station was established. Louisville also 
received some accessions. From this time forth there 
was a steady growth, though Kentucky was yet only a 
collection of fortified villages, outside of which no man's 
life was safe. 

Out-door work, therefore, could only go on by having 
some keep watch, while others worked. 

As regards the people who had come to Kentucky thus 
far, most were Virginians, though many were from Penn- 
sylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina. Much the 
greater proportion were the children of original English, 
Scotch, or Scotch-Irish emigrants. Boone, Harrod, 
Shelby, and many other prominent Kentuckians belonged 
to this second generation, native to the soil and partak- 
ing of its robust character. 



ELIZABETH ZANE's HEROISM 125 



ELIZABETH ZANE'S HEROISM 

Elizabeth Zane's heroism during the attack on Wheel- 
ing (1782), near the Kentuck}^ border, deserves especial 
praise. The house of her brother, Colonel Ebenezer 
Zane, at a little distance from the fort, contained a sup- 
ply of ammunition, and was garrisoned by seven or eight 
persons, male and female, besides his own family. Before 
firing upon the fort, the Indians demanded the surrender 
of the house. A well-directed fire was the reply. The 
women moulded bullets, charged the guns, and handed 
them to the men, enabling them to keep up so constant a 
discharge as to cause the assailants to recoil in dismay. 
At night they attempted to fire the house. A savage 
crawled to the kitchen, and while endeavoring to set it on 
fire with a burning brand, received a shot from a black 
man which sent him yelling away. Fortunately, as it 
turned out, for the garrison in the fort, the Indians had 
captured a boat laden with cannon-balls. All they 
wanted now w^as a cannon with which to batter down the 
palisades of the fort. Indian ingenuity soon supplied 
the want. A hollow log w^as found ; to render this new 
kind of ordnance safe, they procured chains from a 
neighboring blacksmith's shop, and twisted them 
strongly around the improvised cannon. It was then 
heavily charged, pointed toward the palisade, and fired. 
It burst into a thousand fragments, killed some, Avounded 
others, and convinced the survivors of their folly in med- 
dling with the white man's inventions. Exasperated by 
this failure, they returned to the assault of the house. 
A deadly fire again compelled them to retire. Mean- 
while, the long continuance of the siege had used up the 



126 TO THE PEACE OF 1783 

ammunition in the fort. Powder must be brought from 
Zane's house, in which there was a good supply. Though 
it was a forlorn hope, plenty of volunteers offered. Zane's 
young sister, just from a boarding-school in Philadel- 
phia, was of the number. When reminded of the advan- 
tage which a man would have over her in fleetness and 
force, the heroine replied : " Should he fall, his loss will 
be more severely felt. You have not a man to spare ; a 
woman will not be missed in the defence of the fort." 
Her services were accepted. Arranging her dress for the 
purpose, she bounded from the gate. The Indians gazed 
in amazement at her daring, only exclaiming, " A squaw, 
a squaw ! " and making no attempt to stop her. With a 
table-cloth filled with powder bound round her waist, she 
returned safely to the fort, escaping untouched amid a 
volley of balls, several of which passed through her 
clothes. The fort was soon afterward relieved and the 
siege raised. 



TO THE PEACE OF 1783 

Kentucky was, if possible, to pass through still greater 
trials ; for though Clarke's firm hand held the Wabash 
tribes neutral, the Ohio tribes kept up their sanguinary 
raids as before. 

Especially is the year 1782 memorable in the annals 
of Kentucky, as being the last effort these tribes were to 
put forth on her soil during the war. War had driven 
those who sympathized with England out of the border. 
Some were notoriously bad characters, some mere des- 
peradoes. Many of them now took refuge among the 
Delawares, Wyandots, or Shawnees, over whom they ob- 



TO THE PEACE OF 1783 127 

tainecl great influence. These Indians were soon out on 
the war-path again, led by renegade whites. 

The worst ruffian of them all was one Simon Girty. 

In his lifetime this Girty had been everything except 
an honest man. A cruel and vindictive spirit made him 
the congenial companion of savages, but while they 
fought for their rights, as we must own, Girty was no 
better than a hired cutthroat. He was, however, an 
enemy no less hated than feared. 

The first warning of Girty's being in Kentucky was 
his sudden assault on Bryan's Station. It was stoutly 
defended. Failing to take it, he slowly fell back toward 
the Licking. Meantime, runners were spreading the 
alarm. The Kentuckians, who came flocking to Bryan's 
from the nearest stations, some mounted, some on foot, 
on finding themselves about one hundred and eighty 
strong, with veteran leaders among them, started off in 
hot pursuit. Though small, the band included Ken- 
tucky's best and bravest. In vain the older and wiser 
heads advised waiting for Logan, who was on the march 
to join them. The younger men fairly ran away with 
them in their eagerness to bring the villain, Girty, to bay. 

This came to pass all too quickly. The crafty Girty 
had crossed the Licking, and was now lying in wait 
for his pursuers, a short way beyond the famous Blue 
Licks.^ His hope was to decoy them across, and then 
drive them back into the river. His six hundred war- 
riors were posted in two bushy ravines, so as to com- 
mand the ground over which the Kentuckians must 
advance, should they pass the Licking. In this un- 
assailable position he lay like a tiger ready to spring. 

At the crossing the Kentuckians held a brief council 
in the saddle. It disclosed a dare-devil recklessness on 



128 



TO THE PEACE OF 1783 



the part of a few tliouglifcless ones, only too common 
on the frontiers. It was broken off by the foolhardy 
conduct of one of these men, named McGary, who 
spurred on his horse into the stream, crying out, " Let 
those who are not cowards follow me ! " Stung by this 
taunt, horse and foot plunged headlong into the river. 

When across it 
the Kentuckians 
spread themselves 
out, right and left, 
in one thin line, as 
their manner was. 
No enemy was seen 
until firing began, 
and it was terrible. 
AYhen too late, the 
assailan ts found 
themselves be- 
tween two fires. 
They gave Ava3^ 
In a moment the 
Indians were upon 
them with the tom- 
ahawk. This de- 
cided the day. 
Mad with fear, the 
riflemen broke away for the crossing, with the screeching 
redskins in hot pursuit. At the ford rifle and tomahawk 
did dreadful work among the fugitives. All told' the 
losses counted half the strength of the command. 

All Kentucky was now up. Once again, the veteran 
Clarke called for volunteers to attack these raiders in 
their strongholds. It was like a trumpet-call. Nearly a 




THE COUNT DE VEBGENNES. 



TO THE PEACE OF 1783 129 

thousand riflemen flocked to the appomted rendezvous. 
With this formidable force Clarke iuA^aded the Miami 
country, burning and destroying everything as he went. 




WHAT FRANCE WOULD HAVE GIVEN US, 1782. 

The Indians fell back before him ; and though he could 
never bring them to battle, he left their country desolate. 
Peace put an end to this enfeebling border Avarfare. 
To the Indians it had been a failing fight ; to the Ken- 
tuckians a costly one. 
9 



130 



TO THE PEACE OF 1783 



When it came to settling the terms of peace, Clarke's 
lucky seizure of the western posts probably gave us the 
boundary of the lakes, though not without the secret op- 
position of our ally, France.'^ France wished, indeed, to 
see the new nation free, but not great, through her 
means. And had she dictated the terms of peace, the 
United States would have been kept nearly within their 
old limits as colonies. When Yergennes, the French 
minister, was found out, the English and American com- 
missioners came to an agreement without him. 

As it was, there was sharp talk between them, before 
a settlement satisfactory to both was reached. " You 
are afraid of being made the tools of the powers of 
Europe," said Oswald to Adams. " Indeed I am," re- 
plied Adams. "What powers? " asked Oswald. "All of 
them," was the blunt reply. 

When the negotiations were about to be broken off, 
England came over to our side. November 30, 1782, 
the treaty was signed.^ 

Owing to too great haste or to ignorance, or perhaps to 
both, the boundaries of the United States were so loosely 
defined in the treaty, that our northeastern limits were 
not settled until the year 1842, or the northwestern until 
1846; and in each case the settlement came perilously 
near involving us in war with England again.^ 



1 Blue Licks. The salt springs so 
widely distributed over central Ken- 
tucky, under the name of licks, exerted 
no little influence upon the settlement of 
the State. First they furnished an un- 
failing supply of salt, and salt was an 
article of prime necessity. Next, being 
the resort of the bison, the elk, and the 
deer, whose well-beaten roads were the 
white men's first paths, the hi;nters were 
in the habit of repairing to them for food. 



These licks gave their names to the Lick- 
ing, on which are the Upper and Lower 
Blue Licks, and to the Salt Eiver, besides 
many other localities. The miry ground 
around them has given up strange se- 
crets. At the Big Bone Lick, in Boone 
Co., twenty miles below Cincinnati, the 
huge bones of the elephant and mastodon, 
of prehistoric times, have been turned 
up in large quantities. Whether these 
monsters simply became mired by their 



THE COMMONWEALTH 



131 



own weight, or perished in deadly com- 
bat, their remains afford indisputable 
evidence of wonderful changes in the 
animal kingdom. 

Captain Butler, who visited the Big 
Bone Lick in 1784, says : " I saw a thigh- 
bone that measured, at the big end, three 
feet round, and a jaw-bone that must 
have weighed near fifty pounds. A num- 
ber of these bones have been sent to Eng- 
land and France, and they cannot tell 
what bones they are. Some say they are 
elephants, but I think they are larger."— 
Mag. of Am. Hist. 

2 The losses, like the numbers en- 
gaged, have been variously estimated, at 
from 67 to 77, left on the ground. 

Colonels Todd and Trigg, Majors Har- 
lan and Bulger, and Captains Gordon, 
Bulger, McBride, and Lindsey, were 
among the slain. Boone's son, Israel, 
was carried off the field, by his father, 



mortally wounded. Logan arrived on the 
ground in time to bury the dead. Girty 
had decamped. 

^ Opposition from France arose from 
her intriguing to recover some part of 
what she had lost by the treaty of 1763, 
The negotiation was not very honorable 
to her. See Life of Lord Shelburne, iii., 
300 ; Making of the Great West^ 163, 164, 
168, note. 

* Treaty signed, but not ratified for 
nearly a year, on account of a private 
agreement between France, Spain, and 
the United States, by which one could 
not conclude a peace without the oth- 
ers. 

s The map, with the line as finally 
fixed, is in the King's Library, British 
Museum. Mitchell's Map (1755), used in 
the settlement of the Maine boundary 
question, 1842, is in the Public Eecord 
Office. 



THE COMMONWEALTH 



" What constitutes a state ? 
Not high-raised battlements or labored mound, 
Thick walls or moated gate."— Sir William Jones. 

We know men's principles by tlieir laws. Among the 
nine laws of the Transylvania Colony was one to prevent 
profane swearing and Sabbath-breaking. AVhile this cer- 
tainly suggests the existence of a crying evil, it quite as 
truly denotes a self-respecting people, with a sound moral 
sentiment at the bottom. 

Still another law looked to preserving the breed of 
horses. This, in turn, suggests that the early Kentuckian 
prized his horse quite as highly as the Arab does, be- 
cause, like the Arab, he often owed his life to the fleet- 
ness of his steed. We learn, also, why in later times the 
Kentucky breed of horses became so famous. 



132 THE COMMONWEALTH 

Of course, when this colony fell to pieces, its laws went 
with it. The spirit of those laws, however, lived on, 
whether written or unwritten made little difference, so 
long as the people themselves believed in them, as they 
seem to have done. 

As every new settler's first concern is for his homestead, 
so the means of securing it has everything to do with the 
prosperity of a State. Here the men who had gone out 
with Washington or Braddock had been promised a gift 
of a certain amount of publk) lands, so, if a soldier, he 
was entitled to locate so many acres of vacant land, to 
which, after entry at the Land Office, he would get his deed. 
If a citizen, he could take up a homestead of four hundred 
acres, with the right of pre-emption to a thousand more,^ 
very much as he can under our pre-emption laws to-day. 
Only a small fee was required in his case, but he had to 
make his own surveys, there being as yet no official one. 
Out of this loose practice endless troubles arose, in which 
honest, but ignorant folk, like Daniel Boone, lost both 
labor and lands at the hands of unprincipled land-sharks 
and sharpers. 

Kentucky's first standing as a political unit came when 
she was set off as a county in December, 1776. Harrods- 
burg was made the county-seat, so it was there the courts 
of justice for all Kentucky were first set up. 

In just four years (1780) there were enough people to 
call for a new division into three counties : namely, Lin- 
coln, Fayette, and Jefferson, each having a county lieu- 
tenant set over it, as in Virginia. Todd was the senior, 
Boone second, and Logan third in rank. 

In two years ^ more (1782), these three counties were 
made a judicial district, Harrodsburg being the place for 
holding the courts. We learn that foi* Avant of proper 



AN OLD KENTUCKY HOME 133 

accommodations there, the court had to sit in a meeting- 
house six miles oft', whicli led, a little later, to the rise of 
a new station called Danville. As the sittings of the 
courts brought the people together, these occasions were 
naturally improved for political discussions, and Danville 
thus became the political centre, also. 

Kentucky's first-born child had not arrived at manhood 
when she herself was demanding a separation from the 
parent State. The oldest colony had, indeed, planted a 
robust progeny in the Great AVest. Not but they loved the 
mother colony well enough, but the very fact of having to 
shift for themselves was sure to build up an independent 
spirit, which was drawn in w ith the very air they breathed, 
and grew with their growth. So, in 1785 the movement 
began, and though it lingered along some six years yet, 
because of conditions prudently imposed by Virginia, sep- 
aration was looked upon as a foregone conclusion. But 
Kentucky was first to pass through a most trying ordeal. 

1 Every man who, before March, 17S0, of acres wherever vacant land could be 

had been one year in the country, or found. 

raised a crop of corn, was allowed this. 2 The population in 1783 was estimated 

After that the settlement and pre-emp- at 12,000 ; in 1784, at 30,000, showing the 

tion rights ceased, and treasury war- enormous increase was owing to the dis- 

rants were issued instead, authorizing banding of the American army. In 1810 

the holders to locate a given number it was 406,511. 



AN OLD KENTUCKY HOME 

" A ploughman on his legs Is higher than a gentleman on his knees."— Franklin 

Save when shut up in iJieir stations by the Indians, 
the Kentuckians, as a rule, did not have to endure that 
pinching want, so trying to the early colonists of the sea- 
board. Food, at least, was to be had for the taking. 



134 AN OLD KENTUCKY HOME 

Though wild game supplied the settler's first and most 
pressing Avants, Indian corn, or maize, was always his 
first crop. Bread for his meat prompted his first rude 
husbandry. In that rich virgin soil, nothing was so 
easily grow^n as corn. Even by dropping a few kernels 
into holes made with an axe among the stumps, a first 
harvest could be had. Rude husbandry this, yet it did 
very well until the ground could be thoroughly cleared 
for the plough. 

Sometimes these very corn-fields served as ambushes 
for Indians to lurk unseen in, as we are told they did in 
the attack on Estill's Station, in 1782. 

After harvest, for want of mills to grind it, the settler 
or his boys pounded the corn to a coarse meal, in a 
mortar, as the Indians did. His good wife then stirred 
in a little salt, and a little water, until the dough could 
be patted between the hands into a rough cake. It was 
then carefully wrapped up in clean corn -husks and put 
on the embers to bake. This was the Kentucky corn- 
dodger, sometimes called a bannock in other localities. 
It remains a favorite article of food to this day, though 
good teeth are needed to break the thick crust. 

For his salt the settler had only to go to the nearest 
salt lick ; but this being a very hazardous thing to do, 
so long as Indians were prowling about to kill him, the 
salt-makers went out only in strong parties, prepared to 
fight. They pitched their camp near the lick, set their 
kettles to boiling, posted guards, and worked or watched 
by turns. It was while out with one such party that 
Boone was carried off captive, by a war-party of 
Shawnees, from whom he made his escape, as is else- 
where related. 

Sugar was supplied him in abundance from the sugar- 



AX OLD KENTUCKY HOME 135 

maples, which grow hixuriantly all over Kentucky. Oue 
enthusiastic traveller declared the Kentucky sugar as good 
as any he had ever seen brought from the AVest Indies. 
Hemp, flax, and even cotton were soon grown with suc- 
cess, more for home use, however, than export, though 
short trial showed that hemp was likely to be a most 
valuable staple, as it has since proved. The settlers 
made linen from flax of their own raising. All real 
wants, such as food and clothing, were, therefore, easily 
and abundantly supplied from the soil itself. 

After providing for his daily bread, the settler began 
to think of a crop for profit. All Virginians knew how 
to raise tobacco, so very soon tobacco was generally 
planted in all the settlements, though at first there was 
only a home market for it. Its use, however, Avas quite 
general, not only by men, but women also. An old wife, 
sitting in the chimney corner smoking her pipe, is no 
very uncommon sight in the mountainous districts of 
Kentucky to-day. 

An anecdote will l)est serve to show at what risks or- 
dinary vocations were carried on, even under the rifles 
of the stations. Boone, himself, was one day busy at 
work, hanging up his tobacco in his drying-shed, when 
four stout Indians noiselessly glided in at the low door, 
one after another. Wholly unaware of their presence, 
Boone was standing somewhat above them, on some 
poles, when he heard someone sa}^ : " Now, Boone, we got 
you ;■ you no get away any more. AYe carry you off to 
Chillicothe, this time sure. You no cheat us any more, 
Boone." Boone gave a look down into their upturned 
faces, as astonished a man as can well be conceived, 
yet his iron self-command enabled him to control his 
feelings admirably, though the muzzles of their guns 



136 AN OLD KENTUCKY HOME 

nearly touched him. He saw by their paint that they were 
Shawnees, and old acquaintances of his former captivity. 
All this time they kept him covered with their guns. 
His only chance was to gain time enough to devise 
some means of escape. Greeting the grinning wretches 
as old friends, Boone kept them in talk until he could 
scrape together some handfuls of fine dry tobacco dust, 
directly over the spot where they stood looking up at 
him, in triumph to think how cleverly they had trapped 
the great white hunter. Quick as a flash he flung the 
dust down into their faces, sprang lightly to the ground, 
dashed them aside and darted out of the cabin, leaving 
the blinded Indians stamping about them with rage and 
pain at the trick thus played upon them. 

Cut off, as he was, from the rest of the world, the Ken- 
tuckian's industrial progress could not help being slow. 
In a short time he raised more tobacco than he could sell. 
This turned his attention early to the Spanish market at 
New Orleans, which could be reached by the rivers run- 
ning past his door. But the distance there and back was 
more than equal to a voyage to Europe and back, if com- 
puted by the time required to go down the river in a flat- 
boat, and return by land. Nevertheless, it is quite true 
that the Kentucky planter could ship his tobacco to Phil- 
adelphia, at less cost, by way of New Orleans than by 
way of Pittsburg. And notwithstanding the exactions 
of the Spanish authorities, who shut the way to free com- 
merce, a lucrative trade soon sprung up. And this tobacco 
trade, strange as it may seem at first sight, was the means 
of splitting Kentucky into two warring factions. Corn 
was, however, the general crop at first, though worth only 
about twelve cents a bushel, of our money, in consequence 
of its sale being restricted to the home market. 



AN OLD KENTUCKY HOME 137 

So up to 1784 the chief trade carried on with the out- 
side world was that in furs and in horses. The furs were 
sent either to Alexandria or Philadelphia, taking the 
Wilderness road across the Alleghanies. The same ani- 
mals either brought back such commodities as would 
bear the cost of transportation, or were sold at the jour- 
ney's end. 

In order to make this trip with safety, it was customary 
for the fur- traders to join company at Crab Orchard, then 
a frontier fort next the wilderness, before setting out. 
When they had thus assembled in sufficient numbers, all 
armed to the teeth, sometimes with a hundred pack- 
horses loaded with furs, the cavalcade puts one in mind 
of the caravans passing the Arabian deserts. 

But had the Kentuckians no pastimes? Was it all 
work and no play with them ? 

As early as 1775, it is said, there was a race-track laid 
out at Shallow Ford Station. A settler, who was trying 
his horse's speed on it, was shot from a covert by an 
Indian. 

A good many slaves were brought to Kentucky from 
Virginia, whose mirth-loving propensities no doubt im- 
parted an element of gayety even to the most serious 
times. One of their chief merry-makings was the annual 
corn-husking, or " shucking," as it is called at the W^est, 
when all the negroes in the neighborhood would be called 
in to take part. The huge corn-pile would first be di- 
vided into two equal parts, and the negroes into two equal 
bands, after which each went to work with a will, trying 
to husk its own pile the first, to the accompaniment of a 
banjo. The player would sing some rude ditty, to which 
the sable band would keep time with head or hand, join- 
ing heartily in the refrain ; like this, for example : 



138 A'N OLD KENTUCKY HOMK 

'• Oh, I wish I had de eagles wing! 
Ho ! ho ! he — ho, ho ! 
I'd fly away to a wild-goose land. 
Ho ! ho ! he— ho, ho ! " 

Occasions of general rejoicing were sometimes cele- 
brated by a barbecue, which was the roasting of a whole 
sheep, or even an ox, over a pit dug for the purpose, the 
animal being propped up on spits, over a bed of live coals. 
Then there was shooting at a mark, the stories of which 
throw William Tell's famous exploit into the shade, as it 
was no uncommon thing for one man to hold up some 
small object in his hand for another to fire at, or for the 
marksman to hit an apple thrown into the air. 

Before we take leave of the hunter, farmer, and trader, 
all in one, let us look at his home life. When he threw 
open the door of his humble cabin at the close of a long 
day's tramp, he saw before him a fire blazing brightly on 
the hearth of its one room, with a juicy joint of venison 
roasting merrily before it on the spit. The firelight 
showed him the faces of the inmates turned to welcome 
his safe return. And he, as his quick eye ran over the 
group, from the aged grandmother in the chimney corner, 
to the tow-headed urchin clinging to his mother's linsey- 
woolsey gown, inwardly thanked God that not one was 
missing. The blaze also lighted up the rough logs, filled 
between with clay, the roof of slabs, the uneven floor of 
split logs, the skins drying on the walls and rafters. 
While his faithful dog was sedately receiving the caresses 
of the children, the hunter was carefully hanging up the 
trusty rifle, and 23utting off his hunting gear with all de- 
spatch. By this time the smoking haunch, some corn- 
bread, and perhaps a few roasted sweet potatoes, all send- 
ing out their savory odor, would be on the table, with a 



INTERLUDE 139 

jug of water brought from the spring to wash the viands 
down. Over this frugal meal the assembled family then 
reverently bowed their heads, while the head of it gave 
thanks for their daily bread. Every such humble cabin 
was the cradle of a robust people. To most of them 
such things as pewter dishes or platters, knives, forks, or 
spoons were a luxury ; but every boy of fifteen could break 
a colt or track a deer, while at eighteen he often found 
himself the head of the family. Most of the farm labor 
was performed by blacks, thus leaving the whites free to 
indulge that love for adventure which forms so striking a 
trait of the Kentuckian's character. 



INTERLUDE 



In Kentucky we have seen the wedge driven home 
that was to split the pagan West asunder, north and 
south, for all time. Still more, the planting of ten thou- 
sand resolute whites along the south side of the Ohio, 
alarmed the Indians for their own situation. Their con- 
trol of the river was disputed ; their forays were sure to 
be swiftly revenged ; their numbers every day diminish- 
ing ; and so they were wise enough to see that, contend 
as they would, the foot of the white man could not be 
turned back. 

One striking result of this change in the attitude of 
the white and red man here, is seen in the departure of 
the warlike Shawnees from the lower Scioto to the inte- 
rior. Grown wise in season, they were falling back to 
concentrate. Those villages, therefore, which had so 
long been the terror of travellers, as well as the rendez- 
vous for raids into Kentucky, and Avhere so many miser- 



140 INTERLUDE 

able prisoners liad suffered unlieard-of tortures, were now 
abandoned for good ; and with their desertion the Ken- 
tuckians could also breathe more freely, since they would 
no longer serve as a shield for the war-parties mustering 
to invade them. 

We hold this falling back, therefore, a most instructive 
sign of the times. We know it is sometimes done the 
better to gather headway for a long leap forward ; but 
this was confessed weakness. From the moment that the 
whites had succeeded in gaining a firm foothold in Ken- 
tucky, all Indians knew that the first battle had gone 
against them ; whichever way they turned, they saw a 
foe. 

By this time they also knew just what to expect from 
the whites. To borrow a figure from Scripture, they had 
seen "the handwriting on the wall." Looking backward 
was grievous ; looking forward, despair. They were nat- 
urally a brave people ; we shall find them so to the end. 

Of course nothinsf was easier than for these Arabs of the 
West to remove their villages. In an hour their whole 
property could be packed on the backs of their nimble- 
footed ponies ; in two they could be on the march. But 
when we find them giving up a strategic point, like these 
Scioto villages, we know it must be because they felt 
themselves unable to hold the ground longer. 

In the course of the late war several expeditions had 
marched north of the Ohio, and marched back again, 
without doing the Indians great harm, as they would 
never figlit if the odds were too heavily against them. 
That of General Clarke, up the Miami, has been related 
already. Earlier still (1778), General Mcintosh had ad- 
vanced from Fort Pitt to the Tuscarawas, where he built 
Fort Laurens,^ right in the heart of the Delaware country, 



INTERLUDE 



141 



and left a garrison in it, as if to overawe the hostile tribes. 
Instead, however, of being a check upon them, the garri- 
son soon found themselves close prisoners, afraid either 
to stay in the fort or leave it. That step, therefore, was 
prematurely taken. It is true that there was a faction 
among the Dela- 
wares of this region 
who favored the 
Americans, but 
they were only a 
few among many. 
Mcintosh saved 
the garrison, but 
the fort had to be 
abandoned after- 
ward. 

It did not, by any 
means, escape at- 
tack. I n making 
their assault here 
the Indians showed 
their usual cun- 
ning. Not daring 
to assault openly, 
they tried strat- 
agem. All the 
horses belonging to 

the garrison had been turned out to graze, bells being 
first put on them to tell where to find them. Having 
caught the horses overnight, the Indians took off their 
bells, hid themselves around the fort, and in the 
morning, by jingling the bells, lured out some six- 
teen soldiers, to search for the stray animals. All 




INDIAN PIPE-BOWLS. 



142 THE PILGRIMS OF OHIO 

but two were shot down before the trick was discov- 
ered. 

Other expeditions served no purpose whatever, except 
to keep alive the feeling of exasperation existing on both 
sides of the Ohio. When the Indians were beaten, it was 
usually called a victory ; when the whites, it was a mas- 
sacre. It is hardly possible to conceive a worse state of 
feeling than that which existed all along the disputed 
border at the close of the Revolutionary War. 

1 Fort Laurens was near the present town of Bolivar. 



THE PILGRIMS OF OHIO 

The first white settlers in what is now the State of 
Ohio were some Moravian missionaries,^ who had first 
gone among the Delawares, in Pennsylvania, and after- 
ward followed them to Ohio (1772). They were good 
Christian men and women, engaged in a most worthy 
cause; their converts also were sober, intelligent, indus- 
trious people, but they would not fight, even in their own 
defence, because they believed all war to be a crime ; and 
men who would not fight were sure to become, as these 
Moravians soon did, a byword and a jest, all up and 
down the lawless border. 

Still this did not deter them, for they thought to let 
their good works speak for them ; nor was it possible 
they could ever have conceived the fate in store for 
them. They and their Indian converts founded three 
neat villages along the Tuscarawas, a main branch of 
the Muskingum, in as delightful a situation as ever heaii 
of man could desire ; and here, as if by magic, arose a 



THE PILGRIMS OF OHIO 143 

little Christian commonwealth whose simple laws were 
founded on the teachings of Christ himself. Each vil- 
lage had its own church and school-house ; each school- 
house was provided with spelling-books in the Delaware 
tongue ; and all took part in the daily exercise of song 
and praise, as well as in the labors of the field. 

Here the Revolutionary War found them. This war 
let loose the worst passions on both sides of the border. 
Worse still, it brought the lawless element uppermost, as 
war is always sure to do. Alas ! for the poor Moravians, 
who now saw themselves placed between two hostile 
camps, and under suspicion in both. At Pittsburg they 
were charged with covertly aiding hostile war-parties ; at 
Detroit with sending intelligence to Pittsburg. In vain 
they protested their strict neutrality. A neutral, between 
two belligerents, must have power to maintain his neu- 
trality by force, if necessary ; and these people, like the 
Quakers, were bound hand and foot by their own creed 
of non-resistance. 

This could not last. The British Indian agent, at De- 
troit, applied to the great council of the Six Nations to re- 
move those Christian Indians out of the country. Upon 
this demand the compliant Iroquois sent a war message 
to the Chippewas and Ottawas to this effect : " Brothers, 
we herewith make you a present of the Christian Indians 
to make soup of," which was the same as giving permis- 
sion to murder them. To their credit, the Chippewas 
and Ottawas sent back the cruel message with the reply, 
"Brothers, we have no cause for doing this." 

Failing to get this vile work done by others, the Brit- 
ish commandant himself sent a war-party to remove the 
Moravians, or what was the same thing, he gave his 
authority to those who stood only too ready to execute 



144 



THE PILGRIMS OF OHIO 



it. In vain the Moravians begged for time. Their mis- 
sionaries were seized, their villages plundered, and they 
themselves forced to depart in such haste as to leave 
their ungathered crops standing in the fields. All this 
happened in September, 1781. 

Having saved nothing except their lives, these poor 
people then took their way to Sandusky, where they 
wintered. But want pinched them so that, in their dis- 
tress, a hundred or more went back to gather the corn left 
standing at the time of their flight. On March 7, 1782, 
while quietly engaged in this work,' they were surprised, 
made prisoners, and all but two or three butchered by a 
party of American rangers from the Ohio.'^ 

In May, 1782, a second expedition marched against 
the remnant of the Moravians at Upper Sandusky. The 
Moravians, having been warned in time, had made their 
escape. No sooner, however, had the Americans began 
their homeward march than they were attacked, defeated, 
and driven back by the warriors who had gathered in 
their rear. Colonel Crawford, the American commander, 
fell into the enemy's hands, and was burned at the stake. 



1 The Moravians, or United Brethren, 
so called from having planted themselves 
in Moravia. They were introduced into 
England, 1738, by their bishop, Connt 
Zinzeudorf, and by him also into Amer- 
ica, in 1741, their earliest mission being 
established among the Mohicans of Cou- 
"becticut and New York. From here they 
went to the Lehigh, in Pennsylvania, 
where they founded Bethlehem, Gnaden- 
hiitten, etc. Wesley is said to have taken 



some of their forms of worship for his 
own Christian plan. See Bethlehem and 
the Moravians. 

2 This was at Gnadenhiitten (tents of 
grace), named for an earlier Moravian 
town on the Lehigh ; refoiinded by 
Heckewelder in 1801. 

3 Two BOYS, who made their escape, 
gave the horrible particulars. Anthony 
Benezet's account is considered trust- 
worthy. See his Observations, etc. 



TU^ NORTHWEST TERRITOKY 145 

THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY 

" The Ohio soon shall glide by many a town of note." — Freneau. 

This was a truly remarkable prophecy to be uttered as 
far back as 1772, while the whole region north of the 
Ohio was yet an uncouth wilderness. All we have to 
do is to trace out its early fulfilment. 

By the treaty of peace, England gave up to the United 
States all the territory ^ she had wrested from France 
twenty years before, south of the great lakes. England 
did not know what she was giving up ; we did not 
know it ourselves. 

Here was this great block of wilderness country — an 
empire in itself — become ours by a stroke of the pen. 
There w^ere, it is true, sixty odd thousand wild Indians 
in it, yet to be settled with. 

Our country is often called the asylum for the op- 
pressed of all nations. The Northwest first became an 
asylum for the deserving poor among our own country- 
men. It is a strange story of national rectitude tri- 
umphing over national ingratitude and neglect. 

The movement for settling up the newly acquired ter- 
ritory had its beginning in our army at Newburg.' The 
situation was this : The army was about to be dis- 
banded. As there was no money to pay it with, it was 
on the point of mutiny. The country was, in fact, bank- 
rupt. It had borrowed until it could do so no longer. 
It had made and put out so much paper money, without 
knowing when or how it was to be redeemed, that no- 
body would take it, except at a ruinous discount to the 
holder. So low, indeed, had this paper money fallen, 
10 



146 



THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY 



that Wasliington said that " a wagon-load of it would 
hardly buy a wagon-load of provisions." 

Looking these hard facts in the face, some of the more 
sagacious officers devised a way out of the difficulty by 
paying off the soldiers in Western lands. It was really 
no new thing. Indeed, several of the colonies had done 




WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS, NEWBURG, N. Y. 

it before, and promised to do it again ; but these lands 
were all the country had to pay with, at this time ; the 
need was most urgent ; so we may be sure that the pro- 
posal was hailed, as every practical one always is in such 
emergencies, by all sorts and conditions of men. 

Timothy Pickering, quartermaster-general, and Gen- 
eral Rufus Putnam ^ were active in bringing this plan be- 



THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY 



147 



fore their l)rotlier officers, whose efforts were cordially 
seconded by AVashingtoii himself. The idea took so 
well that a monster petition soon went out from the 
camp to the Congress, praying for a grant of lands north 
of the Ohio, in redemption of its pledges to its soldiers. 

Congress was slow ; the army impatient. Not that 
Congress was unwilling to do so simple an act of justice, 
if it had possessed either the power or means ; unfortu- 
nately it had nei- 
ther the one nor 
the other. To say 
all, we were not 
yet, in any sense, 
a nation ; ^ we were 
only a league of 
confederates, 
banded together 
for the single pur- 
pose of achieving 
our independence. 
The league had 
shoAvn itself strong 
enough for w a r , 
but proved too 
weak for peace. 

We were not one sovereign, but thirteen, which the sol- 
diers had often grumblingiy compared to a barrel without 
hoops. Thus far, then, a common danger had held the 
States together, though peace now left them like a ship 
that has indeed weathered the storm, but sees no land 
ahead. It was a great peril, out of which came the ad- 
mirable Constitution under which we now live. 

Then there were obstacles in the way. Several States, 




BUFUS PUTNAM. 



148 THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY 

for example, claimed prior rights in the public domain 
through that provision in their old musty royal charters 
carrying their boundaries to the South Sea ; New York 
through the Iroquois in a still more indefinite way ; 
while all the rest insisted that, inasmuch as the territory 
in question had been conquered at the common expense, 
it should be treated as common property. All these old 
claims really rested upon nothing but ignorance in their 
makers. 

So Congress sat with its hands tied, until one day 
Dr. Witherspoon ^ got up in his seat to ask why this 
splendid domain might not be used for paying off the 
public debt — which included, of course, what was due to 
the soldiers, as well as to other importunate creditors. 
The more the idea was considered the more it was liked. 
One by one the interested States gave up their claims. 
New York led off in 1782 ; Virginia followed in 1784 ; 
Massachusetts in 1785 ; Connecticut in 1786 to all hers 
except a strip lying along the lake shore, which, for 
that reason, presently took the name of the Connecticut 
Reserve.^ Virginia also reserved a tract lying between 
the Scioto and the Little Miami, which, in like manner, 
was called the Virginia Military District. This was to 
make good her pledges to her own soldiers. 

Two very large parcels of land were thus left at the 
disposal of two of the original claimants, f or~ the benefit 
of their own soldiers ; so that in time a new Connecticut, 
so to speak, sprung up on Lake Erie, and a new Virginia 
on the Ohio. 

It resulted that the disbanded soldiers became pre- 
ferred creditors of the new nation. All were agreed that 
the public domain could hardly have been put to a bet- 
ter use. 



THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY 149 

Tlins it was that, just as it was going out of existence, 
the Old Confederation, which nobody respected, and no- 
body would trust, created the New NorthAvest in a spirit 
of the wisest statesmanship. 

We have now to consider a third and fourth grant from 
the Old Confederation. 

In May, 1785, even before the cession was complete. 
Congress ordered a survey to be made, beginning at the 
west line of Pennsylvania, and running back to within a 
few miles of the Muskingum, or at the extreme southeast 
corner of the unsettled territory. The body of land to 
be included in this survey was called the Seven Ranges, 
and Rufus Putnam received an appointment as one of 
the surveyors. 

For the protection of settlers, a new fort was also 
begun in the autumn of 1785, on the west bank of the 
Muskingum, at its mouth, called Fort Harmar, after 
Colonel Josiah Harmar, who soon took command of it. 
This was equivalent to advancing our frontier one hun- 
dred miles beyond Pittsburg, which had so long been a 
frontier post. Fort Finney also was built, in October of 
this year, at the mouth of the Great Miami. 

Though out of the army, Putnam had by no means 
ceased his efforts to get a grant of land from Congress, 
to be paid for in Continental paper money. His persist- 
ency, at length, carried the day ; and as other engage- 
ments forbade his going west just then himself, he got 
Benjamin Tupper,"' an old comrade, to go in his place, and 
Tupper soon set out. 

When Tupper got to Pittsburg — no holiday journey 
then, we must remember — it was too late in the season to 
think of proceeding further. So that plan fell through. 
He saw many officers and traders, however, from whom 



150 



THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY 



he gathered all the information he could about the country 
next beyond the Seven Ranges. With this Tupper went 
back to New England, saw Putnam, told him what he 
had heard, and the two comrades sat up all night talking 
over their plans, which, by daybreak, had been put into 
the form of a call for a meeting, to be held at the Bunch 
of Grapes tavern, in Boston, early in March (1786). 

At this meeting a partial organization of a new Ohio 
Company - was effected. By July its prospects wore so 
encouraging a look that Manasseh Cutler,^ a director, 

was sent to push on a negotiation, 
already begun with the Congress, 
for a million acres lying between 
the Scioto and Muskingum. This 
he did with equal tact and success, 
not only getting the lands j^racti- 
cally on his own terms, but with 
such wise rules for governing the 
great territory, now first formed 
under his eye, as to show a well- 
considered plan beforehand. In 
the act organizing it, passed July 
13th, known as the Ordinance of 1787, it was provided 
that not less than three, nor more than five States might 
be formed from it. As a matter of fact, there have been 
six.^o 

The most vital thincf about this celebrated ordinance 
was the article excluding slavery. It is a great fact in 
our history, which time alone could take the full measure 
of. Nathan Dane, of Massachusetts, was the member 
who had the courage to propose this legislation to a Con- 
gress largely made up of slaveholders. 

For the United States to undertake to put a limit to 




SIGN OF THE BUNCH OP GRAPES. 



THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY 151 

slavery was something as new, as we believe it was 
unexpected. Yet the proposal seems to have aroused 
little or no opposition. Perhaps its far-reaching effects 
could not so quickly be grasped. Be that as it may, 
Congress had now asserted its power to exclude slavery 
from the national domain. There were no heated dis- 
cussions over it, no popular agitations, no monster peti- 
tions, as in later times. The territory northwest of the 
the Ohio was made free without a struggle. 

The ordinance did, however, provide for the return of 
fugitive slaves to their masters. It also declared that 
schools and the means of education " should be forever 
encouraged." To encourage emigration these things, 
indeed, had been specifically provided for two years be- 
fore, by setting apart one section in every township for 
the support of its public schools. 

The rights of the Indians were also carefully guarded 
by this instrument. But when were their rights ever 
observed ? At this very time, by several treaties,^^ 
patched up with certain tribes or fragments of tribes, it 
was assumed that the Indian title to the granted lands 
had been extinguished, when, in fact, only a questionable 
one had been secured. We shall see what came of this 
by and by. 

By this organic law, the people of the Territory were 
treated as wards of the United States. The territorial 
government was vested in a governor, secretary, and 
three judges, who were to administer such laws only as 
were then in force in the States. They could not 
make new laws. This plan was expected to serve only 
until the people should be numerous enough to take 
part in the government, and enact laws for themselves. 
Then, the election of an assembly was provided for, 



152 THE NORTHWEST TERRITOKY 

though the suffrage was restricted to freeholders. Con- 
gress apj^ointed General Arthur St. Clair first governor, 
a veteran officer universally respected, though the most 
unsuccessful of captains. He was past middle age, in- 
firm, and dissatisfied with himself for having accepted 
the post. But Washington had urged his going, and so 
he weakly w^ent. 

As governor, St. Clair could make treaties with the 
Indians. The Kentuckians, who had borne the brunt of 
the conflict in past years, were outspoken in their dislike 
of this new^ government across the river, more especially 
because they now had no voice in making these treaties ; 
just a little, perhaps, because it promised to put a curb 
on thefr own raids. 

Kentucky was still a district of Yirginia, but already 
she had shown signs of a higher j^i'ogress by publish- 
ing the first newspaper of the Ohio Yalley. This was 
the Kentucky Gazette, which came out at Lexington, in 
August, 1787. 

There was trouble brewing in still another quarter. 
Under a shallow pretence England still continued to hold 
the chain of posts on our northern frontier she had agreed 
to give up at the treaty of j^eace. They were, therefore, 
so many foreign arsenals for arming hostile tribes, within 
our own borders as well as without. Both countries were, 
therefore, in armed occupation of the Territory, both 
angry and defiant, so that nothing but the great dis- 
tance between the Ohio and the lakes probably averted 
a collision. And as these posts commanded the water 
route to the Territory, travel was of necessity turned 
away to the Ohio. 

Thus matters stood at the passage of the act creating 
the Territory. 



MARIETTA, THE CORNER-STONE 



153 



1 The territory ceded to the United 
States was the same as that ceded by 
France to Great Britain, or substantially 
that covered by the States of Ohio, In- 
diana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and 
Minnesota. See note 5, p. 131. 

2 At Newburg. Look up the condi- 
tion of affairs at this time more fully, as 
related by Gordon, Bancroft, Irving 
{Life of Washington), and others. 

3 RuFUs Putnam was born in Sutton, 
Mass., 1738 ; served in the French War, 
17.55-63 ; went into the army again on the 
breaking out of the Revolution, and 
served throughout the war with the rep- 
utation, not of a brilliant, but of a faith- 
ful and meritorious soldier. He first 
show^ed a native capacity for planning 
field-works at the siege of Boston, 1775. 
Rufus was a cousin of Israel Putnam. 
See Hildreth's Pioneers. 

^ Not a nation. For a fuller know'l- 
edge of what the Confederation was, read 
carefully The Articles of Confederation, 
and then compare with the present Con- 
stitution of the United States. 

* Dr. John Witherspoon, clergyman 
and scholar, was of Scotch birth. In 
1767 he became president of Princeton 
College ; New Jersey sent him to the Con- 
gress, of which he was an influential and 
useful member. 

« Connecticut Reserve included a 
tract one hundred and twenty miles long, 
lying between the parallel of 41° and 
Lake Erie. In October, 1783, the Legis- 



lature of Connecticut reafHrmed its rights 
of jurisdiction and pre-emption to all 
those lands lying west of Pennsylvania 
and east of the Mississippi, and north 
of 41° — the south line of Connecticut. 
Governor Trumbull then issued his proc- 
lamation warning oft intruders. Later 
(1789), the Indian title was extinguished 
through the agency of Judge Samuel H. 
Pai'sons. 

^ Benjamin Tupper, born 1738, was a 
soldier in the French War ; served through 
the Revolutionary War, and was made 
one of the territorial judges in 1788. 

" The Ohio Company. Samuel H. 
Parsons, Rufus Putnam, and Manasseh 
Cutler, were directors. Parsons was 
made one of the judges of the North- 
west Territory by Washington, and was 
drowned in the Big Beaver in 1789. 

9 Manasseh Cutler, minister, doctor, 
lawyer, and land agent, was minister of 
Hamilton, Mass., when called to take a 
prominent part in settling the Northwest, 
though he did not settle there himself. 
In 1788 he made the journey to the Ohio, 
mostly in a sulky, in twenty-nine days. 
His diary of this journey has been pub- 
lished. Three sons, Ephraim, Jervis, 
and Charles, settled in the Ohio Val- 
ley. 

10 See the Ordinance itself at the end 
of this volume. 

11 Treaties of Fort Stanwix, 1784, 
Fort Mcintosh, 1785, Fort Finney, 1786, 
and Fort Harmar, 1789. 



MARIETTA, THE CORNER-STONE 



All being ready, early in the winter of 1787 a pioneer 
party of New Englanders set out for the Muskingum, 
soon followed by a second. Their object in going so 
late in the season was to be on the spot early in the 
spring. These emigrants had to take the old military 



154 MARIETTA, THE CORNER-STONE 

road, stretching its long leagues across Pennsylvania, 
and over the Alleghanies, there being as yet no nearer 
way ; but as some of them had wintered at Valley Forge, 
and some marched to Yorktown, neither the distance, 
nor the hardships of the journey gave them much 
concern. 

U^^on reaching the Youghiogheny crossing, the party 
went into winter quarters,^ as from this point the journey 
was to be finished by water. These men Avere hardy 
mechanics, so to work they went building a barge large 
enough to take them down the river, just as soon as it 
should be open again. No doubt many things served to 
remind them that they, too, were pilgrims, in a certain 
sense. They may even have realized that they were to 
be the founders of a New State, like their forefathers ; 
so they cheerily christened their own little bark the May- 
flower,^ and freighted it Avith the fortunes of the Great 
Northwest, probably much wondering what sort of a 
land they themselves were bound to. 

On April 1st (1788) the Mayflower began her voyage 
down the Ohio. Though slow, the passage was simply 
delightful, for the emigrants now found themselves in a 
different climate, and as it seemed to them almost in a 
different world. The fish were of a totally different sort 
from anything they had ever seen before ; many of the 
forest trees were also new to them ; and whenever they 
landed, as now and then they did, the tales told them 
about the fertility of the soil seemed little short of the 
marvellous. 

On the 7th the Mayfloioer was moored to the bank op- 
posite to Fort Harmar, over which the Stars and Stripes 
waved a welcome. 

There were forty-eight persons who landed, General 



MAEIETTA, THE CORNER-STONE 



155 



Putnam having them in charge for the company. He 
was a man of imposing height and looks. The army 
had been for such as he a great school ; it had taught 
them mutual respect, self -discipline, and a sublime pa- 
tience. Their courage had too often been proved on the 
battle-field to need a word more. Respect for the law, 
reverence toward God, love of country, unshaken faith 
in their own ability to do whatever they set their hands 
to, distinguished one and all. These qualities were all 
strongly brought out from the moment that the most 
ambitious housebuilder among them struck his axe to 
the haft in the first 
tree. 

These frugal 
New Englanders 
thought it down- 
right extravagance 
to be set to work 
chopping down 
black- walnut-trees, 
to be sawed up into 

building boards. One noble black -walnut measured 
twenty -two feet in girth; a sycamore, forty -four feet. 
Here, too, grew a profusion of the spreading horse- 
chestnuts, whose fruit gave to Ohio its nickname of the 
''Buckeye State." But among those best known, and 
most valued, by these New Englanders, was the sugar- 
maple, which promised future harvests of sweets in abun- 
dance. In this tree was so much timber ; in that, so 
much sugar. 

Another object of curious Avonder to these people 
was the depth of rich mould, seen as they sailed along 
the banks. But, perhaps, the greatest wonder of all 




ELEPHANT MOUND. 



156 



MARIETTA, THE COKNER-STONE 



was the huge mounds,^ roads, or earthworks rising on 
all sides of them, so old, indeed, that trees of great age 
were growing out of them. Who could have built them ? 
And what had become of their builders ? These ques- 
tions remain unanswered to this day. These mounds 
are the American Sphinx. 

Upon one of the highest mounds, apparently an older 







V/> ^ 



ANCIENT EARTHWORKS IN OHIO. 



fortification itself, these settlers began building a strong 
fort of hewn logs, into Avhich the women and children 
were first put. The ground thus enclosed, as well as 
the fort itself, was named the Campus Martins ^ or Place 
of Arms. To one of the ancient causeways, or, more 
properly speaking, covered ways, they gave the name of 
Via Sacra, or Holy Way, as if deeply impressed by the 



MARIETTA, THE CORNER-STONE 157 

fact that they were treading upon the bones of multitudes 
of men. 

These things done, the work of clearing and laying off 
house-lots went briskly on, Putnam himself being the 
surveyor. A large tract of land was planted with corn, 
apparently in common. Cabins and corn grew up to- 
gether, though the corn was tall, while the first cabins 
were little low huts, covered in with walnut bark. The 
army officers, doing duty at Fort Harmar, looked across 
the river at the little settlement, daily rising before their 
eyes, Avith wonder and admiration ; and one of them 
has set down in his diary how these people appeared 
" the most happy folks in the world ; " how courteous 
and civil they were ; and what order and submission to 
the authority established among them was observed by 
all alike. In a word, they carried their civilization with 
them. 

These settlers w^ere struck with astonishment at the 
wonderful yield of corn, as compared Avith that of their 
old fields at home. It is related that one of them, on 
returning to New England for his family, said to his 
neighbor, " Why will you waste your time in cultivating 
such land as this ? Out in the West Ave have to stand 
on tiptoe to break off an ear of corn ; Avhile here you 
have to stoop down." 

In August, Manasseh Cutler, aa^Iio had but just arriA^ed, 
took a long Avalk over the city lots, and through the 
corn-field, Avhich to a man just out of NeAV England was 
amazing. " I should be as soon lost in it," he declares, 
" in a cloudy day, as in a cedar SAvamp." And he then 
goes on to tell how the surveyors had to do their Avork 
under the protection of a sergeant's guard, for fear of 
prowling Indians ; Iioav one settler Avas bitten by a cop- 



158 



MARIETTA, THE CORNER-STOlSrE 



perliead snake while asleep ; and how the death of little 
Nabby Gushing, only thirteen months old, who had made 
all that long journey from the sea-coast, sadly reminded 
them that one of their first wants was to be a burial- 
ground. 

Agreeably to an old New England custom, a piece of 
land was set apart as a parsonage lot. In imitation of 
another, their first rules Avere published by posting them 
up on the trunk of a convenient beech-tree that stood 
alone in the ragged clearing, for as yet they had no other 
laws than those of their own making. Return J. Meigs, 

who drew them up, was appointed 
to see that they were obeyed. For 
a time their meetings were held in 
a large tent, taken at Saratoga, and 
brought all the way here from the 
seaboard. 

There w^as intelligent forethought 
in the act setting apart two town- 
ships from the grant for a univer- 
sity. It grasped the whole philos- 
ophy of our national life. So the 
men of Marietta almost immediately picked out a site for 
their university, on the brow of a high hill rising just out 
of the embryo city. 

Game was still so plenty as to remove all fears of hav- 
ing to go hungry. In the course of a morning ramble up 
the Muskingum bottom, two men started four deer, saw 
ripe grapes hanging in profusion all about them, found 
some clam -beds at the bottom of the river, and killed a 
rattlesnake that lay coiled in their path. 

On looking about them, it was found that some thirteen 
families had already (in March) settled over against them, 




MINING TOOLS. 



MARIETTA, THE CORNER-STONE 



159 



on the Kentucky shore. So Fort Harmar had already 
drawn to it these two small communities, as a fair promise 
for the future. 

Meantime, other emigrants had arrived, among whom 
came the governor and judges ^ of the new Territory. On 
July 2d the name of Marietta was formally adopted for 
the new city, 
in gratitude, 
we m a y sup- 
pose, for what 
France had 
done for them 
in the late war. 
The name is 
formed of parts 
of that of the 
unfortunate 
queen of Louis 
XYI., Marie 
Antoinette. 

On the 4tli 
the settlers cel- 
ebrated the na- 
tional anniver- 
sary, in great 
form, by a pro- 
cession, patriotic speeches, and a barbecue. On the 17th 
of this month the territorial government was formally set 
in motion by Governor St. Clair. On the 26th the terri- 
tory east of the Scioto, to the Pennsylvania line, a tract 
corresponding to that ceded by the previous Indian treaties, 
was made a county, by the name of Washington.*^ The first 
court of common pleas was opened with much solemnity, 




GEN. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. 



160 



MARIETTA, THE CORIfER-STO:&^E 



all the public officials attending, in Campus Martins, Sep- 
tember 2d. As Avas to be expected of men who had been 
law-abiding citizens at home, everything had been done 
here with decency and in order. By the newcomers of 
this year, Marietta had increased her population to one 
hundred and thirty- two males, without counting the 
women and children. True, this was as yet but a hand- 
ful, but the tread of coming millions was in the air. 

Never, perhaps, was there a similar movement more 
carefully planned or more thoroughly carried out. 
France, it is true, had made settlers of her disbanded sol- 
diers in Canada, but not land-owners. Putnam and his 
associates not only did everything with that order Avhich 
bespeaks a mature judgment, but with that intelligent 
caution also which would take no leap in the dark. From 
first to last the enterprise went on like clock-work. The 
men themselves could have no higher praise than their 
work gives them. 

Where, indeed, could better be found than these brave 
veterans of the Revolution, who had learned to know one 
another on the field of battle ? Ohio should be proud of 
its ashes ; for it is said that Washington County con- 
tains the graves of more officers of that army than any 
similar extent of ground in all the Union. 



1 Winter quarters were taken up at 
Simrel's Ferry. 

2 The Mayflower was forty-six feet 
long and twelve wide, with a tight deck- 
roof and sharp bow. Either sails or 
oars could be used. She afterward made 
trips between Marietta and up-river 
points, carrying passengers and supplies. 
Boats of this class were a feature of early 
navigation on the Ohio. Colonel Vigo's 
keel-boat was furnished with a rudder, 
and rowed with ten oars. There was a 
cabin and awning. One that Manasseh 



Cutler met on his way back was large 
enough for fifty soldiers to parade on her 
deck. 

3 The Mounds. " We went on to the 
high mound. There is a white-oak tree 
on the top, which General Putnam 
judged to be one hundred feet high. 
Trees on most of the works and particu- 
larly on Sacra Via. This is a regularly 
graded turnpike road, one hundred feet 
wide, with high parapets on each side, 
leading from the ruins on the plain to 
the Muskingum."— Cutler's Journal. An 



CINCINNATI P^OUNDED, 1788 



161 



official examination of all the ancient 
works was made at this time, in the 
presence of the governor.— Z/^.d. 

* Campus Martius was a parallelo- 
gram, measuring seven hundred and 
twenty feet outside. At each corner there 
was a strong block-house, topped b}' a 
sentry-box. Between these were the 
dwellings. At the outer corner of each 
block-house there was a flanker raised on 
stout timbers, to rake the outer walls. 
Fort Harmar was a pentagonal work, 



covering about three - fourths of an 
acre. 

* The judges were Samuel Holden 
Parsons, of Connecticut ; James MitchelF 
Varnum, of Khode Island, and John 
Cleves Symmes, of New Jersey. 

6 Washington County took in about 
everything east of the Scioto, or nearly 
half all Ohio. Its bounds were assumed 
to include what had passed to the United 
States by the Indian treaties thus far 
made. 



CINCINNATI FOUNDED. 1788 



While on his way to Marietta, Manasseh Cutler had 
fallen in with John Cleves Symmes/ one of the newly 
appointed judges, whose jurisdiction covered many more 
square miles than people, and who was now going out to 
settle on his new purchase, situated between the tw^o 
Miamis, or next west of the Virginia district, so extend- 
ing the block of grants, already made, down to the ex- 
treme southwest corner of the State of Ohio. 

Symmes had bargained for this fine tract soon after the 
Ohio Company did for theirs, and although he had not 
yet paid for it, he had decided to lose no time in starting 
a town where Fort Finney stood, at the mouth of the 
Great Miami, reasoning, as people did before the days of 
steam railroads, that the mouth of every important river 
must of necessity be the key to all the country it drains. 

But while Symmes had secured for his larger enter- 
prise the undoubted garden-spot of Ohio, he seems not 
to have known that he had chosen for himself a spot sub- 
ject to sudden overflows of back-water from the Ohio. 

One large block of these Miami lands was bought up 
by one Benjamin Stites,^ and another sold to a certain 
11 



162 CINCINNATI FOUNDED, 1 



Matthias Denman,^ both of New Jersey. Symmes, Stites, 
and Denmau were all busy during the summer of 1788, 
each with his own schemes, Symmes having reached the 
Ohio in August. 

Stites, however, was first on the spot. With similar 
views to those held by Symmes, he had picked out, for 
his settlement, the mouth of the Little Miami. Here, 
on November 28, 1788, he brought his company of set- 
tlers, who began building, after the Kentucky manner, 
what may be called a fortified village, to which Stites 
gave the rather ambitious name of Columbia. 

Denman's parcel lay between the others, some seven 
miles below Stites's, and twenty above Symmes's, on two 
wooded terraces, rising like giant stei3s high above the 
Ohio, its freshets and its fogs, backed by a clump of 
hills and facing the mouth of the Licking, which it finely 
overlooked. AVh ether Denman really saw that two short 
portages would easily tap both Miami valleys, does not 
appear, but upon the face of things his choice certainly 
looks like a stroke of genius. 

Nothing stood on this truly regal spot except a soli- 
tary block-house, built by Clarke in 1780, when he 
marched against the Miami towns. 

Denman took in three partners, with whom he went to 
look over the ground. The better to do this, the party 
separated. When they met again John Filson " was 
missing. Though it was never learned what became of 
him, his companions believed he had met with a violent 
death. Whether Denman knew it or not, his proposed 
town site lay on the great Miami war-path to Kentucky. 
To build there was much like bearding the lion. Already 
numberless forays had caused the place to be known on 
the border as the " Miami Slaughter-House," — a name 



CINCINNATI FOUNDED, 1788 163 

that Filsou's mysterious end must have brought sharply 
home to these explorers. 

The proprietors labored to produce a telling name for 
their town, but they only brought forth a piece of pedan- 
tic nonsense. They hit upon Losantiville, as conveying 
the idea of a town situated opposite to the Licking — a 
fact to which they attached much imj)ortance. Instead 
of being descriptive, it was merely a far-fetched riddle, 
not w^orth the guessing. 

No settlement was made at this time, but quite late in 
December^ (24tli), Israel Ludlow, with some twenty 
others, came and put up three or four log-cabins near 
Clarke's old block-house. The first cabin stood on Front, 
east of and near Main Street. 

The work of surveying the town site then went on. 
What afterward became the spacious city landing, 
pressed by thousands of hurrying feet, was reserved to 
public uses ; as also was the square inclosed between 
Fourth, Fifth, Main, and AValnut Streets. The two levels 
made the site an unusually advantageous one, both for 
building and drainage, to say nothing of looks. 

As the destroying axe hewed out more and more space, 
more cabins arose. Soon the original three had grown to 
twenty, and the handful of pioneers to eleven families, 
besides twenty-four single men. In fact, the hamlet 
might now lay claim to be called a village. These were 
but small beginnings, yet, strange to say, the race for 
pre-eminence was already on. 

Symmes' hopes were early blasted. He had come 
down the Ohio in January (1789), on the top of a great 
and unusual freshet, to find his town site under water ; 
so Symmes began another settlement (February, 1790), at 
North Bend, first called " Symmes' City." 



164 



CIISrCTNNATI FOUNDED, 1788 



The Miami Purchase had now been struck at three 
points. Which of these should be the metropolis, really 
turned upon where the government should decide to 



build the covering fort. 



This was soon done. Early in June (1789), Major 
Doughty came doAvn from Fort Harmar with two com- 





FORT WASHINGTON. CINCINNATI. 



panies of soldiers to build a new fort, to be called Fort 
Washington.*^ After looking over the ground carefully, 
he fixed upon Losantiville. Four separate block-houses 
were first put up for the settlers themselves. This done, 
Doughty's men were set to work upon the fort, just 
east of the town site. The timber was cut on or near the 
spot where it stood. Fifteen acres were reserved round 



CINCINNATI FOUNDED, 1788 165 



the fort for gardens. By November it was ready for its 
garrison, and late in December, Colonel, now General 
Harmar,' occupied it with three himdred men. 

To the Ohio tribes every new fort was another key 
turned upon them. If they had been angry at the erec- 
tion of two forts on the Muskingum, and one on the 
Miami, thereby shutting their old-travelled routes to the 
Ohio against them forever, they were furious at the 
erection of a fourth, exactly upon their great war-trail 
to the south. 

But posts so widely separated and so weakly manned 
could not prevent roving war-parties from slipping in 
between to attack emigrants passing dow^n the Ohio. In 
the spring of 1788, no less than two hundred and fifty 
Kentucky arks had passed Pittsburg by actual count. 
They were being continually fired upon. To show just 
how dangerous the voyage had become, the escape of 
one of these boats will be presently related. 

There was one general outcry to have this bloody work 
stopped. We had only the skeleton of an army ; the 
country was still poor ; so it was decided to be cheaper 
to buy off the Indians than to fight them. 

To this end St. Clair hastened to the Wabash. On 
his Avay there he stopped at Losantiville to erect the 
Miami settlements into a new county called Hamilton, 
in honor of Washington's able Secretary of the Treas- 
ury. At this time, too, the name of Losantiville w^as 
changed to Cincinnati,^ as a soldier's tribute to the 
military order of veteran officers of the Ke volution. No 
other, indeed, could half so well have fixed the fact of 
Ohio's being the soldiers' State in history. The name of 
Cincinnati ever recalls who were the real founders of Ohio. 

St. Clair found the Miamis sulky. It was evident 



166 CINCINNATI FOUNDED, 1788 



they meant mischief. And as they stood aloof, he had 
to make all the advances himself. In vain he first 
tried to wheedle them with fair words. They mockingly 
said he talked with a forked tongue. When he told 
them that since the United States had come into the 
sovereignty of all their country, they should now look 
upon him as their father, they haughtily retorted that 
not he but the English captain, at Detroit, was their 
father, "since he tlirew down their French father." St. 
Clair then tempted them with presents. They spurned 
all his offers, saying, just as the Trojans once said of 
the Greeks, that the Americans were most to be dreaded 
when bringing gifts. As a last resort, St. Clair told 
them that if they wanted war they should have it. This 
was just what they meant to have. They, therefore, 
told his messenger to go home, which was equivalent 
to giving an ambassador his passports, or throwing St. 
Clair's defiance back in his teeth. 

After forming a county called St. Clair (April, 1790), out 
of what is now almost the entire State of Illinois, the gov- 
ernor hurried home to prepare for war. A little later 
(June 20th), all the middle region, including substantially 
the State of Indiana, was organized as Knox County, with 
Yincennes as the county-seat. So the Territory was now 
as good as covered by fixed political divisions, a measure 
of some advantage, certainly, in establishing the form 
of law where before there had been little or none. 

Reading the signs truly, St. Clair knew that his main 
reliance must be upon the Kentuckians for an offensive 
campaign, as his regular troops would be but a mouth- 
ful for the united Indians. But the Kentuckians them- 
selves were also being threatened with war by the Clier- 
okees, and war was only averted by the iron firmness of 



CINCINNATI FOUNDED, 1788 



167 



Colonel Isaac Shelby, who defied the Cherokees in their 
own council-lodge, telling them that a thousand Ken- 
tuckians, with horses all shod, stood ready to march 
against them at a moment's warning. " Too many, too 
many ! " cried the war-chiefs, wisely foreseeing that the 
battle must go against them in the end. 

Meantime, other settlements had been making by the 
Ohio Company, or its agents, at Belpre, Newbury, and 
Gallipolis ^ — the latter by French emigrants exclusively. 
On the Virginia tract one also had started up at Massie- 
ville (Manchester) ; ^^ and on the Miami Purchase at 
South Bend, at Dunlap's Station (Colerain) on the Great 
Miami, and at Covalt's on the Little Miami. All these 
were fortified villages or stations, like those of the ancient 
peoples whose perishing strongholds dot the land, and 
like them show that in all ages man's greatest enemy 
has been his brother man. 



1 John Cleves Symmes had been a 
member of Congress, judge and chief- 
justice of New Jersey, before going west. 
Notwithstanding he was considered an 
eminent jurist, he conducted his land 
business so loosely as to give rise to 
much vexatious litigation over his titles. 
His daughter married General W. H. 
Harrison. 

2 Benjamin Stites first knew of the 
Miami Country through going there 
in pursuit of some horse-thieves. He 
went back to New Jersey, where he met 
Symmes, whom Stites soon persuaded to 
join in his schemes. Attention is called 
to the fact that Jonathan Dayton was 
associated with Stites and Symmes in 
their land operations. See note 1. 

3 Matthias Denman went back to 
New Jersey after getting his scheme 
started. 

* John Filson had been a Pennsyl- 
vania schoolmaster before emigrating to 
Kentucky, where he took up surveying. 



On this account he was intrusted with 
the drawing of the town plat of Cincin- 
nati (Losantiville), for which he took 
Philadelphia as his model, street names 
and all. This example was followed in 
many Western cities. 

* Late in December. The actual 
date is in doubt, though the 24th 
seems to have been adopted by general 
consent, that being the day on which 
the party mentioned in the text left 
Maysville for Losantiville. What seems 
strange is that the participants were 
themselves unable to fix the date ac- 
curately while living. 

* Fort Washington was built upon 
much the same plan as Fort Harmar, of 
hewed logs. All these forts embodied 
the %nost simple rules of fortification, 
wood taking the place of stone in their 
construction. 

' General Josiah Harmar had served 
throughout the Revolution. Upon the 
disbandment of the army he remained 



168 



A COMBAT ON THE OHIO 



in the service, one regiment (1st United 
States) having been enlisted for frontier 
duty. When the army was increased he 
was promoted to brigadier. 

* Cincinnati. This name was adopted 
in honor of the illustrious Roman Lucius 
Quintius Cincinnatus, who lived in the 
fifth century b.c. The payment of a 
heavy fine for his son obliged him to 
turn farmer. Thrice called to lead the 
armies of Rome, he as often returned 



to his plough when the danger was 
over. Hence the appositeness of the 
name for men in like circumstances. 

^ Gallipolis was settled by a French 
colony, who had been induced to emi- 
grate by Joel Barlow, agent at Paris for 
the Scioto Company, an offshoot of the 
Ohio Company. 

in Manchester was founded by Na- 
thaniel Massie, later a founder also of 
Chillicothe. 



A COMBAT ON THE OHIO 



We have just said that the Ohio was always travelled 
at the risk of life or limb. At every crook and turn, 
some outlying war-party lurked in ambush ; while from 
the nearest cliff a watchful sentinel stood ready to sig- 
nal the approach of wdiite men from afar. Not until the 
river gives up its dead will all the horrid story be 
known. 

Captain William Hubbel's party, numbering nine men, 
three women, and eight children, were on their way to 
Limestone, now Maysville, Ky., in a flat-boat. Well 
knowing their danger, they were keeping a sharp look- 
out. 

One foggy morning, just at the gray dawn of day, 
someone hailed them from the shore, asking to be taken 
on board. It was an old trick of the Indians, to decoy 
the whites to their destruction, so Hubbel quietly sent 
his men from their oars to their rifles, while the w^omen 
and children were told »to lie flat on their faces, on the 
cabin floor, and keep as still as death. Nobody answered 
the hail, but all stood anxiously waiting to see wdiat 
would happen next. 



A COMBAT ON THE OHIO 169 

They did not have long to wait. Soon, through the 
thick mist overhanging the river, several canoes were 
seen swiftly and silently paddling toward them. The 
canoes were full of painted savages. Hubbel immediate- 
ly ordered all the tables, chairs, and boxes, cumbering 
the deck, to be thrown overboard. He had made up his 
mind that the fight would be a hot one, and was going 
into it with plenty of elbow-room. 

A& soon as the Indians were within good gunshot they 
stopped paddling just long enough to let fly a rattling 
volley, by which two men were hit. They then shot ahead 
out of the smoke, taking positions at the bow, the stern, 
and alongside the clumsy ark, from which they began 
raking her in every part, at close range. 

The boatmen sharply returned the fire, though tliey 
were but seven sound men against four or five times as 
many. However, the stout sides of the ark were a better 
protection than the light bark of the canoes, if the whites 
could have kept themselves covered, which, of course 
could not be done, as the Indians fired from all sides at 
once. In a few minutes, Hubbel himself received a shot 
through the arm. 

Like hungry wolves worrying a wounded bison, the 
enboldened redskins now pushed in to finish the fight at 
close quarters. One canoe grappled with the ark's bow, 
several of the Indians sprang to the deck, tomahawk in 
hand, and already had raised their yell of triumph, when, 
like a wounded lion, Hubbel rushed upon them, with a 
pistol in each hand. The foremost Indian fell back, 
with a bullet in his body. Without stopping to see the 
effect of his second shot, Hubbel flung away his empty 
pistols, snatched up a cordwood stick from the deck, and 
using that as a club laid about him so furiously, that the 




XaE INDIANS' ROCK, PORTSMOUTH, O. 



A COMBAT ON THE OHIO 171 

Indians were glad to leap into their canoes, and sheer off 
as quickly as possible. 

But in this hand-to-hand scuffle Hubbel had been 
wounded again ; and he had now only four men left un- 
hurt. 

They, however, undauntedly kept up the fight, choos- 
ing rather to be all killed fighting, than to die a linger- 
ing death by torture, if taken. 

After their repulse the Indians kept up a dropping fire, 
cleverly timing their own movements with that of the 
ark, as she drifted helplessly on with the current. But 
whenever one of them half rose up to take aim, all the 
whites would fire at him at once, seldom failing to bring 
down their man. In this way, the Indians were kept at 
bay, until they gave up the fight, and sheered off for the 
shore, fairly beaten. 

As the last canoe swung round, so as to present a fair 
mark, Hubbel fired the last shot at the Indian paddling 
in her stern. The well-aimed bullet tumbled the red- 
skin into the bottom of the canoe, either dead or badly 
wounded. 

While the whites were rejoicing over their narrow es- 
cape, the treacherous current was all the time setting 
them toward the shore, and presently the bullets were 
again coming thick and fast at them from the bushes. 
Two men were sent to the oars, but all their efforts could 
not urge the unwieldy hulk out of gunshot ; and all had 
nearly given themselves up for lost, when the current 
as suddenly carried the ark out into the middle of the 
river. 

As soon as they were safe again, the survivors gave 
three hearty cheers for their victory. 

It was dearly bought. Out of nine men who began the 



172 THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION, 1790-1791 

combat, three were killed outright, and four wounded. 
None of the women or children, however, had received 
any hurt, except one little fellow, who bravely kept the 
knowledge of his wounds to himself, until the fight was 
over. He then asked to have a ball taken from his scalp. 
After this piece of lead had been removed, the brave lad 
held up his arm to show where another bullet had shat- 
tered the elbow, leaving a piece of the bone hanging to it 
by the skin. When his frightened mother asked him why 
he had not said a word of this, the young hero proudly 
replied, "Because the captain told us to keep quiet, and 
I thought you would make a noise if you knew of it." 



THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION, 1790-1791 

Finding that the Indians were so bent on war, St. Clair 
wisely decided to strike first. The heart of the Indian 
league was the Miami villages,^ Ijiiig about the head of 
the Maumee. True, they were a long way off, yet unless 
they could be made to feel that nowhere would they be 
safe from punishment, their enmity would continue un- 
abated. 

For this point, then, General Harmar marched with 
something over fourteen hundred men, late in September 
(1790), his main purpose being to cripple the Indians 
by destroying their villages and harvests ; or as we 
should now say, by making a raid on a large scale. 
Harmar Avas about turning back after doing considerable 
damage of this sort, when, a little below the site of Fort 
Wayne, Little Turtle, the Miami war-chief, suddenly fell 
upon one of the out-parties, cut it to pieces, and sent 
the survivors pell-mell back to the camp. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSIOTnT, 1790-1791 173 

This disaster so stirred the army that, against his own 
judgment, Harmar sent off an expedition to surprise the 
Miami villages, by a forced march. Officers and men 
were only too eager to wipe aw^ay the disgrace that the 
army had just sustained. 

Thinking Harmar to be in full retreat, the Indians had 




HARMAR's defeat ; vicinity of fort WAYNE. 

[1, Arrival at the ford ; 2, first detachment stopped ; 3, second detachment held at 
the ford.] 

left the Maumee ford ' unguarded ; so that, strangely 
enough, the Americans reached it undiscovered. 

The enemy's principal encampment lay only a little 
way beyond, in a bend of the Maumee. To make the 
most of their advantage, the assailants now thought it 
best to divide their forces, letting one body make a wide 
circuit, in order to gain the rear of the camp, and so cut 



THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION, 1790-1791 175 



off escape that way, while the other should cross over 
and attack it in front. This plan would bring the In- 
dians between two fires. 

This important advantage was thrown away by the im- 
prudence of a militiaman, who, upon seeing a stray In- 
dian, fired at him, so putting the unsuspecting foe on the 
alert. In an instant the Indians were seen running in 
every direction. 

The surprise having thus failed, the plan of attack was 
completely turned against the Americans. Little Turtle 
noAV threw himself between the two detachments, first 
driving one back and then the other, so that only by the 
most desperate sort of fighting could the remnants of 
the two bodies get together again for a hurried flight. 
Only half of those who went into this action came out 
of it alive, as the badly wounded were tomahawked on 
the spot. 

For a wonder, many of the Indians now fought on 
horseback, as well as the whites, from whom, in fact, they 
had learned the art, as Avell as stolen the horses. They 
rode like the Arabs, and made a much more fierce and 
warlike appearance even, in their war-paint, feathers, and 
bells as they came charging down upon their adversaries, 
shouting like madmen, and looking like demons. 

Thus ended Harmar's inglorious attempt to chastise 
the hostile tribes in their own stronghold. 

St. Clair -^ then raised a second army of two thousand 
men, with which he in turn marched against Little Turtle, 
early in September (1791). To say that he had worked 
early and late to get his forces in the field would be only 
giving him his due. He had even been to Philadelphia 
to consult with President Washington, who, in taking- 
leave of him, had as impressively warned St. Clair against 



176 THP: struggle for possession, 1790-1791 

a surprise as he had done Braddock before him. Pos- 
sibly that terrible disaster was yet fresh in his mind. 

In a campaign of this sort, where there were absolutely 
no roads, one great difficulty consisted in keeping com- 
munication open as the army marched on. It is a very 
old maxim that every army marches on its stomach. Un- 
less, then, St. Clair could keep the road open behind him 
his army could not be fed ; and if it could not be fed, it 
would have to halt, perhaps retreat. 

Twenty-four miles up the Miami, St. Clair, therefore, 
halted to build Fort Hamilton ; forty miles farther on he 
built Fort Jefferson. This fort was six miles south of 
Greenville. Having thus guarded his line of supply or 
retreat, as the case might be, he jpushed on toward the 
enemy again. 

November 3d the army went into camp ^ on the banks 
of a small stream, militia in front, regular troops in the 
rear. In this order the militia would have to meet the 
first onset. The army was considerably weakened by in- 
subordination, and still more so from a want of con- 
fidence in St. Clair, whom all knew to be physically unfit 
for active command. It was a terrible mistake, terribly 
paid for. There was firing along the front all night, just 
enough to keep the army on the alert ; so the men lay on 
their arms, fully expecting an attack to begin as soon as 
it Avas light. 

There were other signs abroad that a prudent com- 
mander would fail to heed at his peril. St. Clair was not 
heedless ; he well knew what ought to be done ; yet a 
general who was so stiff and sore with the gout as to have 
to be helped on and off his horse, was not the man to be 
beating up the wild woods, searching for wild Indians, 
from a camp-bed. 



THE STEUGGLE FOR POSSESSION, 1790-1791 177 



As we have just said, the army lay on its arms ex- 
pecting an attack. It was an Indian war-custom always 
to attack at break of day, on the theory that drowsy sen- 
tinels make a sleepy camp. At about midnight, therefore, 
the army was quietly drawn up, under arms, to await the 
passing of the critical moment. At the same time, scouts 
were sent out to scour the woods in front. As they re- 
ported no Indians near, at daybreak (November 4th), the 
men were dismissed to get their breakfasts. A light snow 
had fallen during the night, the morning was chilly, and 
the men were so worn out with marching and loss of sleep 
that most of them had thrown themselves down upon the 
ground to get a little rest. Others were dispersed around 
the camp-fires. 

While vigilance was thus relaxed, the enemy burst upon 
the camp like a tornado. In a moment the dusky woods 
around were all ablaze with the flashes of musketry. To 
the noise of the explosions was added the hideous yells 
issuing from two thousand eager throats, as like leaping 
panthers the furious savages came rushing down upon St. 
Clair's first line. 

With this first furious onset that line went to pieces. 
As the bewildered soldiers of the second line sprang from 
the ground, they saw the Indians, with their bloody 
tomahawks and death-dealing knives, butchering the fly- 
ing militia. In another moment fugitives and pursuers 
came down upon them in a heap together. 

There was no time to form. In squads or fragments 
the regular troops got together as best they could and 
fought as men do for their lives. They even succeeded 
in driving the screaming Indians back to cover, so se- 
curing a moment's respite in which to form in some kind 

of order. The battle soon began again with tenfold fury. 
12 



178 THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION, 1790-1791 



It was only the panther drawing back for a more terrible 
and decisive leap. 

. Seemingly at one and the same moment, the most 
deadly fire began again all around the camp. It was 
terribly fatal, yet the men had to stand and take it, like 
living targets, because the Avily enemy kept close to cover. 
They were then ordered to charge with the bayonet. 
Again, and again, the troops drove the Indians from 
their hiding-places, only to fall back again for want of 
support, with thinner and thinner ranks. St. Clair be- 
haved like a hero ; three horses were shot under him ; 
still the feeble old man undauntedly rode in the thickest 
of the fight ; though at length the case became so desper- 
ate that, to save the gallant little remnant of his army, 
he had to order a last, a hopeless charge. 

How well they had fought after the first panic will be 
■ better understood when it is known that more men fell 
^ here than in any battle of the Revolutionary War. But 
as regards fighting the Indians, it really seems as if 
nothing had been learned and nothing forgotten. It was 
only by repeated defeats that we were taught at last Iioav 
to conquer them. 

Among the many acts of heroism shown on that fatal 
field, the last was by no means least. 

When the badly wounded men found that they were 
to be left behind, they begged their comrades, as a last 
favor, to load their muskets for them for a last shot ; and 
their dropping shots, heard in the distance, after all fight- 
ing was over, told the fugitives that more than one savage 
was being made to bite the dust. 

St. Clair rode away from the field mounted upon a 

- pack-horse. The men threw away their guns to run the 

faster, and did not stop till they got to Fort Jefferson, 



THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION, 1790-1791 179 

twenty-nine miles distant. At this place they met a 
reinforcement coming up. In truth, St. Clair's army 
had been the same as destroyed. Nine hundred men 
killed and wounded, most of the cannon, all of the bag- 
gage, provisions, and ammunition lost ! — there had been 
no such rout since Braddock's Day. 

This battle ^ left the Indians free to overrun the Terri- 
tory at will. It was even doubtful if the posts on the 
Ohio could now be held against them. Indeed, nothing 
could have been more cruelly decisive. 

Ill news is said to travel fast, yet it took more than a 
month for this to reach Philadelphia. The disaster was 
felt even to the farthest corner of the Union. So com- 
plete an overthrow, so great a loss of life, such a deep 
disgrace had never before befallen American soldiers. 
Deep, therefore, was the indignation everywhere poured 
out on the head of the unlucky St. Clair. Even Wash- 
ington himself is said to have lost all his self-command 
on hearing the news, giving utterance to broken words of 
mingled grief and WTath.^ 

Of course an instant stop was put to emigration. 



1 Miami villages, with French trad- 
ing-posts in their vicinity, are referred to 
in earlier chapters, See pp. 25, 26 7iote. 

^Maumee Ford, the place of Har- 
mar's defeat, is about half a mile below 
Fort Wayne, Ind. 

3 St. Clair owed his appointment to 
this command to the fact that he was the 
senior officer of our very small army, as 
well as governor of the Northwest Ter- 
ritory. 

* The camp was in the southwest cor- 
ner of Mercer County ; its site is the 
same as that of Fort Recovery. See 
maps. 

* This battle ; the newspapers of the 



day contain much about it ; especially 
those of Philadelphia, New York, and 
Boston, where St. Clair's regular troops 
were mostly recruited ; so carrying the 
disaster home to the farthest corner of 
the Union. Johonnot's Narrative, 
Greenfield, Mass., 1816, is that of a sol- 
dier who was in the battle. 

••The story of Washington's having, 
fallen into a paroxysm of rage, in 
which he stormed at St. Clair in unmeas- 
ured terms, is in all the histories. It 
originated with Tobias Lear, Washing- 
ton's private secretary. In refutation of 
it see Moore's Libels oj Washington (pri- 
vately printed). New York, 1889. 



180 



WAYNE S CAMPAIGN, 1794 



WAYNE'S CAMPAIGN, 1794 



After the first outburst of sorrow and mortification was 
over, Washington looked about him for a general whom 
he could trust. His choice fell upon Wayne — " Mad 
Anthony " — the Ney of the Revolutionary army, and the 




UNITED STATES INDIAN PEACE COMMISSIONERS, 1793. 

[1, Timothy Pickering ; 2, Benjamin Lincoln ; 3, Beverly Randolph.] 

idol of his soldiers. Wayne had said to Washington in 
almost so many words, "I am the very man you want." ^ 
These wary and experienced captains knew that whoever 
should beat Little Turtle -^ must be no ordinary man. 
The campaign now begun was one of the most deliber- 



Wayne's campaign, 1794 



181 



ate on record, and it shows us how deeply the lesson taught 
by two defeats had sunk in the minds of Washington and 
Wayne. 

It took Wayne two years to form an army capable, in 
his opinion, of fighting the savages on equal terms. Not 
until he had drilled it to resist every possible form of at- 
tack would he give the order to march. 

In the year 1792 Kentucky came into the Union as a 
State.^ In November, 1793, the first newspaper of the 
Northwest Territory was issued by William Maxwell, at 




BRITISH OFFICERS AND INDIAN ORATOR, 1793. 

Cincinnati. It was called the Centinel of the Northivest 
Territory. 

While getting ready for war, efforts * were still making 
for peace. They failed because the Indians would abate 
nothing of their old demands. With them it was always 
the Ohio or nothing. So peace was not to be. 

Wayne first moved in October (1793), six miles beyond 
Fort Jefferson. He had three thousand six hundred men- 
Here he halted to build Fort Greenville ; and from here 
a strong detachment pushed on as far as St. Clair's battle- 



182 Wayne's campaign, 1794 

ground, on which they built Fort Recovery. In these two 
posts the army then wintered. 

Wayne had thus got back all that St. Clair had lost 
without firing a shot. Thus to have brought the army 
safely up to within striking distance of the enemy was 
much, especially when that enemy was Little Turtle. So 
far Wayne had made no mistakes, but from this time 
forth he knew that he must manoeuvre to fight, and the 
way he did it stamps him as a general of the first rank. 

Little Turtle supposed Wayne would attack him at the 
Miami villages. His forces were, therefore, being held 
in readiness at that point. Nothing was farther from 
Wayne's thoughts. 

The campaign opened late. Cutting roads and bring- 
ing U23 supi^lies made it midsummer (1794), before Wayne 
was ready to move on again ; but it was Little Turtle 
who forced the fighting. Chafing at the delay, the subtle 
chief made one of his sudden onslaughts on Fort Recov- 
ery. It was gallantly repulsed before Wayne could get 
up to the aid of the garrison. But he was now ready to 
move on. Instead, however, of striking off direct for the 
St. Mary's, Wayne merely looked one way and marched 
another. He turned away in the opposite direction, to 
the Auglaize, marched down this stream to the Maumee, 
and there, in the very heart of the Miami country, built 
Fort Defiance.^ 

Little Turtle's position was thus completely turned, 
and the Miami country cut in two. But Wayne had 
still another object in view. He knew that the British 
had lately built a fort at the Maumee rapids below, de- 
signed, no doubt, as a rallying-point for the hostile 
tribes. His present position was, therefore, a strong 
check upon that secret enemy, under a friendly flag. 



WAYNe\s campaign, 1794 



183 



But not even the near presence of so many foes could 
check the stern soldier's admiration for what he now saw 
spread out before him. This is what he himself says of 
it : " The very extensive and highly cultivated fields and 
gardens show. the work of many hands. The margins of 
those beautiful rivers, the Miami of the Lakes and Au- 
glaize, appear 
like one con- 
tinued village 
for a number 
of miles, both 
above and be- 
low this place ; 
nor have I ever 
before beheld 
such immense 
fields of corn 
in any part 
of America, 
from Canada 
to Florida." 
Most truly was 
it a country 
worth fighting 
for. All this 
abundance 
Wayne had only to stretch out his hand to lay waste ; 
yet he would not do so without first making one more 
effort for peace. This he proffered, not with the insolence 
of a conqueror, but with the frankness of a soldier who 
can feel for his adversary's wrongs. 

Deceived by Wayne's skilful movements, the wary old 
war-chiefs now began to see what sort of a man they 




GENERAL ANTHONY WAYNE. 



184 Wayne's campaign, 1794 

had to deal with. So far he had given them no chance 
to \iij one of their murderous traps for him, as they had 
for Harmar and St. Clair. One day their spies would 
report that the Black Snake, as they called Wayne, was 
cutting a road in one direction ; on the next in another. 
So they were kept guessing. But now that he was firm- 
ly seated in the very heart of their country, Little Tur- 
tle for one was inclined to hearken to him. Said the 
chief : " We have beaten the enemy twice, under sepa- 
rate commanders. We cannot expect the same good 
fortune always to attend us. The Americans are now 
led by a chief who never sleeps. Night and day are 
alike to him, so that during all the time he has been 
marching on our villages we have never once been able 
to surprise him." 

The general voice, however, favored giving Wayne 
battle, and it Avas so determined. The Indians felt con- 
fident of beating Wayne as they had done Harmar and St. 
Clair before him. They had seen " Mad Anthony " 
manoeuvre, but they had not yet seen him fight. 

Finding that the Indians had drawn their forces to- 
gether, between him and the rapids, Wayne marched 
down the west bank of the Maumee to attack them. 
The enemy had chosen well their ground.*^ It was an 
opening torn in the forest by a tornado, which had left 
the ground strewed with uprooted trees and bristling 
with their outstretched branches in every direction — a 
natural breastwork, defended by natural ahatis. No 
horsemen could ride through it ; infantry could only pick 
their way under the fire of a thousand rifles. In this 
natural stronghold no less than two thousand warriors 
lay flat on the ground, waiting for Wayne to make his 
appearance, on the morning of August 20th. To enter 



Wayne's campaign, 1794 185 



it was like marching into the very jaws of death. But 
there was no other way of finding the enemy than by 
sacrificing some brave men. 

As usual, the enemy was felt before being seen. When 
Wayne's vanguard came out of the woods into the clear- 
ing, the rifles began to crack on all sides of them, and 
the men to fall fast. The vanguard therefore fell back 
upon the supports. These were already formed, at the 
first sound of the firing. Instantly, Wayne ordered his 
whole line forward. The men caught his spirit and were 
all fire. As the bugles rang out the charge, the eager in- 
fantry sprang upon the enemy with the bayonet. That 
was the order. There was to be no firing until the enemy 
were unearthed. 

Scrambling helter-skelter over the fallen trees the 
Americans fell upon the crouching warriors with the cold 
steel. A swarm of tawny redskins rose up from the 
ground, and fled before them. Then and not till then did 
the soldiers deliver their fire, right and left, with destruc- 
tive effect. Again they pushed on, giving the enemy no 
time to reload or rally for another stand. Soon, in every 
direction, they were being forced back by the impetuous 
onset of Wayne's veterans. In the rear, the men of the 
second line were madly racing after the first. They 
never caught up with it. The battle was won without 
them. Even the horse had found a way round the en- 
emy's flank in time to do deadly work wdth their sabres. 
In every quarter of the field they could be seen riding 
down flying savages. Scores were trampled under foot 
by the eager horsemen. After the chase had been kept 
up for two miles, a recall was sounded. The charge had 
been so decisive, the pursuit so swift, that half of the 
army could not get near the enemy. 



186 



Wayne's campaign, 1794 



The Indians could not rally again. AYayne had dealt 
them a death-blow, and they felt it as such. With nn- 
sparing hand he now destroyed their ripening corn-fields. 
When he had turned the smiling valley around him into 




WAYNE'S CAMPAIGN AND EARLY OHIO SETTLEMENTS. 



a waste place, he marched slowly up to the forks of the 
Maumee, and there, on the site of the great Indian hold, 
he built Fort Wayne, the thing that St. Clair had planned 
to do, but so signally failed in. 



Wayne's campaign, i794 



187 



The ground where the battle was fought was ever after 
known as The Fallen Timbers. A fair city has risen on 
the site of Fort Wayne. 

With a chain of forts, stretching from the Ohio nearly 
to Lake Erie, the hostile tribes, east and west, were as 
good as cut off from each other. They were doomed to 
a still further isolation by the evacuation of the British 
posts on the lakes, soon after ; so that, in reality, their 
last hope had now perished. The restoring to us of our 
own frontier was, perhaps, hastened by Wayne's victorious 
campaign. His parting words to Washington had been 
no idle boast, for, in truth, he had shown himself the very 
man for the crisis. 



1 Words to this effect are found in 
General Knox's correspondence. Knox 
was then Secretary of War. 

'^ Little Turtle won high praise 
among militaiy men for his generalship. 
Knox said of him, ' ' Little Turtle is cer- 
tainly a very remarkable man." In a 
conversation wth some Quakers, the 
chief very earnestly said that " the liquor 
which the whites bring into our country 
is more to be feared than gun or toma- 
hawk. There are more of us dead since 
the Treaty of Greenville than we lost by 
the sis years' war before." See an able 
speech of his in American State Papers 
(Ind.), i., 53. 

3 Kentucky came into the Union only 
after long and vexatious delays, partly 
arising from her relations to Virginia, 
partly from the unsettled political con- 
ditions under which the United States 
themselves then labored. The term of 



years covered by these efforts for admis* 
sion is memorable for the rise of a dis- 
union feeling, growing out of Spain's un- 
friendly action in closing New Orleans 
to American products. See Brown's 
Political Beginnings of Kentucky ; The 
Making of the Great West, p. 171. The 
act admitting Kentucky passed Febru- 
ary 4, 1791, but was not to take effect till 
June 1, 1792. The State constitution per- 
mitted negro slavery. Isaac Shelby was 
elected first governor. 

* President Washington sent a com- 
mission to the frontier with power to 
treat, but the Indian ultimatum was al- 
ways the Ohio or war, so it was time 
thrown away. 

* Fort Defiance began the present 
city of Defiance. 

* Wayne's battle - ground was at 
Presquisle (not to be confounded with 
the French name for Erie, Pa.). 



188 THE TREATY OF GREENVILLE, 1795 



THE TREATY OF GREENVILLE, 1795 

" The pen is mightier than the sword " 

After putting his troops into winter quarters, along 
his fortified line, so as to be ready to check any attempt 
to break through it, Wayne began feeling the temper of 
the defeated tribes, with a AdeAv to peace. 

It resulted that the next summer (1795), about all of 
them met Wayne in council at Greenville, to hear what 
he had to propose. There were present Wyandots, Dela- 
wares, Shawnees, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatomies 
from the river St. Joseph and Lake Huron, Miamis, 
Kickapoos, Kaskaskias, and some few Iroquois of San- 
dusky. Together, they represented the strength of the 
still formidable confederacy. 

Upon rising to sjjeak to them, Wayne held up, so all 
could see it, a carved image of the arms of the United 
States. He did this because he knew that with an Ind- 
ian everything had its symbol, and every symbol its 
meaning. Pointing, therefore, to the eagle, seen clutching 
the sheaf of arrows with one talon, and with the other the 
olive branch, Wayne gave them to understand that war 
or peace now rested with them. 

The council continued its sittings for several weeks. 
This chief had to be won over, or that tribe conciliated, 
or the other condoled with. Finally, on August 3d, an 
agreement was reached by which the Indians ceded some 
twenty-five thousand square miles of territory, besides 
sixteen separate tracts reserved to as many forts — hence 
known as military reservations. 

After the treaty had been twice read, and every ar- 



THE TREATY OF GREENVILLE, 1795 189 

tide fully explained by Wayne himself, he then asked, 
" You Chippewas, do you approve of these articles and 
are you prepared to sign them ? " (A unanimous answer, 
" Yes ".) He then asked the same question, in turn, of 
every nation there present. As each was called upon by 
name it gave the same answer. All having agreed, and 
the treaty being signed, a copy was given to the repre- 
sentative of each nation, after which gifts were distributed 
among them, and the council broke up, with every mark 
of mutual good feeling. 

By this treaty the Indians had been pushed back from 
the Ohio, nearly to the divide separating the waters flow- 
ing to the Ohio from those running to Lake Erie. Or, if 
the Western Reserve be included, more than two-thirds 
of the State of Ohio was now thrown open to settlement. 
Wayne had done his part equally well as soldier or dip- 
lomat. 



THIRD EPOCH 
PROGRESS 



' ' The strongest nation is that which counts the most robust men, inter- 
ested in its defence, animated by its spirit, and possessing the feeling of its 
destiny. " — Buret. 



FALL OF THE IROQUOIS, 1779 

TTAVING now seen why westward emigration first fol- 
"^-*- lowed the Ohio Yalley, even though mountains stood 
in the way, it is found that, with the return of peace, travel 
immediately flowed back into its natural channels again. 
War had forced the opening of a new route ; peace gave 
us back the old again, in this way. 

Before the Revolution, there were no thoroughfares 
through middle and western New York, save the old, 
well -beaten Iroquois trails — from village to village. 
White settlements extended no farther West than Rome, 
where all travel turned aside to reach the lake at Oswego. 
This was the great route to the West ; and it also Avas 
the route by which the infant commerce of the West 
reached tide-water. It had only been established by 
leave of the Iroquois. 

The Revolution changed all that. Among other results 
it brought about the utter downfall of the great Iroquois 
confederacy itself, in a way no one had foreseen or ex- 
pected. 

It so happened that when the colonies went to war with 
England, these Iroquois took sides against them, as rebels 
against their lawful king ; and so throughout all that 
long contest the colonies had no worse foes than their 
old-time friends of the great league, who nearly depopu- 
lated the Mohawk Valley, and quite desolated that of the 
Upper Susquehanna. 

Their many cruelties had, in turn, provoked the inva- 
sion and conquest of their own country by an American 
13 



194 



FALL OF THE IROQUOIS, 1779 



army, led by General Sullivan (1779). After this took 
place, the Mohawks left it, to return no more ; many 
others did the same, and those who remained were so 
broken in spirit, and in power, as no longer to be either 
courted or feared, as of old. And so the once despotic 
Iroquois league at last crumbled away. 




A MOHAWK VILLAGE IN NEW YORK. 



These events presently threw the Iroquois country 
open to travel and settlement, as the Indians were now 
ready to part with the lands that they knew they coukl 
not much longer hold. Indeed, the war had scarcely 
ended before schemes were set on foot (1786), for bring- 
ing large bodies of settlers, not only into the rich Genesee 
Valley, but even as far west as Lake Erie itself. 



FALL OF THE IROQUOIS, 1779 



195 



Not mncli could be done, however, so long as tlie lake 
forts remained in British hands ; but when Niagara and 
the rest became American posts, and Wayne's treaty gave 
assured protection, emigration began to find its way to 
the West through the incomparable waterways at the 
north. 




BURNING OF IROQUOIS VILLAGES'. 

The Senecas, on whom the avenging blow had chiefly 
fallen, fled from their old homes in the fei^tile Genesee 
Yalley to the narrow strip of land lying along the Ni- 
agara River where they, with other fugitives, received 
aid from the British, so long as Niagara remained theirs. 
One of these bands planted itself at the mouth of Buf- 
falo Creek (1780), where the great city of Buffalo now 
stands. Here they were joined by a few traders, whose 



196 THE WESTERN RSSERVE. 1795 

lowly cabins gave little hint of the coming metropolis. 
But Buffalo was none the less begun. 



THE WESTERN RESERVE, 1795 

In the year 1792 Connecticut gave a half million 
acres, situated at the west end of her great tract on Lake 
Erie, to those of her citizens whose homes had been 
burned by the British during the Revolutionary AVar. 
Hence this grant was after known as the Firelands. A 
little later (1795), the rest of the tract was sold outright 
to a land company, formed much on the plan of that at 
Marietta, and the proceeds turned into a school fund. 
This company, like the other, was vested with no politi- 
cal powers whatever. 

The next year (1796) Moses Cleaveland^ was sent out 
to Ohio, as agent and director for the company. He 
took with him a party of surveyors to lay off 'the lands, 
besides two families to care for their wants there, the 
whole making fifty-two persons, none of whom were act- 
ual emigrants. The route they took foreshadows the 
new ways of travel, or old ways resumed. Part crossed 
New York overland to Buffalo, going by w^ay of Canan- 
daigua, '^ and part went by water, via Oswego, to Niagara, 
and thence to Buffalo. At Niagara they found the fort 
in charge of United States troops ; at Buffalo they found 
a tavern.'^ 

At this place Cleaveland stopped to hold a council with 
the remnant of the Iroquois, who, even in their fallen 
estate, still asserted their right of eminent domain over 
lands in the Reserve just as haughtily as ever. To deny 
it would be to invite their enmity. Cleaveland, therefore, 



THE WESTERN EESERVE, 1795 197 

(juieted tliem by the payment of $2500 in cash, two beef- 
cattle, and one hundred gallons of whiskey. This done, 
his party embarked for the Reserve. 

Their first landing was made July 4, 1796, at the 
mouth of Conneaut Creek,^ at the extreme northeast 
corner of Ohio, and, like true Americans, their very first 
act was to celebrate the double event with patriotic 
speeches and the best banquet that their humble means 
could provide. 

Earlier by a year (1795), Charles M. Reed had built him 
a log-cabin at Presquisle, about half way between Buftalo 
and Conneaut, thus restoring that once important point 
to a place on the map, and also laying the foundation 
for the now thriving city of Erie.^ This year (1796), the 
United States were building a new fort there, in room of 
the old French work, which was now being demolished, 
and a town laid out on its site. 

From Conneaut, where they built their first store- 
house, and left a family in charge, the surveyors pushed 
out into the wild lands of the Reserve. The old Indian 
trails, sure forerunners of future commerce, all led up 
from the south toward the Cuj^ahoga, down whose slug- 
gish stream many a fur- laden canoe had paddled in 
bygone times, out into the great lake, to shape its ven- 
turous course for Niagara or Detroit. 

The main thoroughfare and best harbor of the Reserve 
being thus clearly established beforehand, the proper 
place for its chief town was quickly decided to be at the 
mouth of the Cuyahoga ; and it was accordingly there 
laid out, on the flat brow of a gravelly bluff, lifted high 
above the lake. To this new-born town the name of 
Cleveland was given, in honor of the leader of the expe- 
dition. Its real founder, however, was that unknown red 



198 THE WESTERN RESERVE, 1795 

man avIio first discerned its utility as a point of departure 
for the Ohio or the far East. 

While the main body wintered at Conneaut, one family 
(that of Job P. Stiles) was left in charge of the store- 
house erected at Cleveland. The winter at Conneaut 
proved one of much suffering to these unseasoned pio- 
neers, who were driven to sore shifts to live, their sup- 
plies having fallen short of their actual wants. Hence 
these people are not unfrequently spoken of as the Pil- 
grims of Ohio, from the trials of their first winter. 

In June, 1797, James Kingsbury^ and Elijah Gunn' 
brought their families from Conneaut to Cleveland. They 
were soon joined here by Lorenzo Carter and Esek 
Hawdey, with their families. A few others dropj)ed in 
from time to time, but the increase was slow, compared 
Avith that of the Marietta colony. These first comers 
maintained themselves with difficulty, though perhaps 
their worst enemy Avas the fever and ague, to which they 
mostly w^ere utter strangers. It was, in fact, the bane of 
all the early settlements of the West. When the new- 
comers became too enfeebled to help themselves, the 
Indians of the neicrhborhood would often brine* them 
presents of game, or by other friendly acts alleviate their 
distresses. Otherwise they must have starved. 

The nearest point to which these people could look 
for aid was Presquisle or Erie. Many a weary journey 
was made through winter snows and trackless forests, 
ninety miles there and ninety back, to get even a bushel 
of corn ; while the traveller's way was often beset by 
wolves, only a little more hungry than himself. 

At Erie, the old route to the Ohio, which had been 
first opened to keep the English out, w^as now being put 
to use in bringing settlers from Pennsylvania to the vir- 



THE WESTERN RESERVE, 1795 



199 



gill lands of the lake sliore, tlius tapping the stream of 
travel, setting so strongly into the Ohio Valley, in favor 
of the more northern line. 

These were indeed but small beginnings (one man 
here and another there), yet now from Buffalo to Cleve- 
land, and from Pittsburg to Erie, the landmarks had been 
permanently set, to be known of all men, which, if being 
travelled mostly on foot, and at the risk of life or limb, 
should witness the coming of a greater army, and a 
greater commerce, than the world had ever dreamed of, in 
an ever increasing tide. 

At first settlers moved slowly into the Keserve, because 
the title of the State of Connecticut was not considered 
as good as that of the United States. Every new settler 
wants his title guaranteed by the whole nation. ^Yith 
no less will he ever be content. To remove this difficulty. 
Congress authorized the President to make out a patent, 
under the seal of the United States, confirming the title 
of purchasers up to that time, provided that Connecticut 
should surrender all claim to jurisdiction west of her 
own boundary. This was done May 30, 1800. 

In this same year (1800), the Reserve was organized as a 
county by the name of Trumbull, for Jonathan Trumbull, 
the old war-governor of Connecticut, to whom AVasli- 
iiigton himself had given the nickname, since become 
national, of Brother Jonathan. 



1 Moses Cleav eland, general of Con- 
necticut militia, born in Canterbury, 
Conn., 1754, died there in 1806. Leaving 
Yale to take part in the Eevolntionary 
War, he re-entered and took his degi'ee 
in 1777, adopted the law as his profes- 
sion, served in the legislature and mi- 
litia, and finally took charge of opening 
the Western Reserve, as related in the 
text. The family name of Cleaveland, 



which is still represented in New Eng- 
land, is altered in the spelling of that of 
the city he founded. 

- By way of Cananuaigua was the 
old Indian trail from the Mohawk, con- 
necting the heads of the lakes of central 
New York, which eventually became the 
travelled route to Lake Erie and the 
West. From Cauandaigua a bi-anch 
road struck off to a stream falling into 



200 



OHIO BECOMES A STATE, 1803 



Lake Ontario, at Iroiideqiioit Bay, some 
seventy miles from Niagara. A trading- 
post was established there by Governor 
Burnet, in 1721, to divert the Indian 
trade from the French at Niagara. See 
Whittlesey's Early History of Cleveland. 

3 A TAVERN kept by John Palmer, in 
1795, on the Terrace, nearly opposite Ex 
change Street. When it was full, guests 
Avere allowed to sleep on the floor. 

* CoNNEAUT Creek was first chris- 
tened Port Independence by the survey- 
ing party on account of the day. 



° City of Erie. See Magazine of West- 
ern History, vol. v., No. 3, for a fuller 
account. 

" James Kingsbury was the first ad- 
venturer who came to the Eeserve on his 
own account. He got to Conneaut soon 
after the surveyors did. His wife came 
with him. 

^ Elijah Gunn and his wife took 
charge of the storehouse at Conneaut, 
facetiously called Stowe Castle, from the 
commissary of the party. 



OHIO BECOMES A STATE, 1803 



The results to Ohio of Wayne's treaty were instant 
as well as far-reaching. With the surrender of Detroit 
to ns, Michigan first came under the flag (July 11, 1796), 
and was attached to the North Avest Territory as Wayne ^ 
County. Not only on the AVestern Reserve, but at the 
south and east also, there was renewed activity, with re- 
turning confidence; so that the year 1796 marks an im- 
portant era in the history of Ohio. We have looked at 
the small beginnings on the Reserve ; we will now see 
what was going on elsewhere. 

First (April, 1796), sixteen persons began a town on 
the Miami tract, called Dayton,- for Jonathan Dayton, a 
distinguished veteran of the Revolution. The same 
spring (1796), Nathaniel Massie led a party of Kentucky 
emigrants, who were seeking for new homes on free soil, 
into the interior of the Yirginia Military District. They 
pitched upon a beautiful spot, near the junction of 
Paint Creek with the Scioto, laid out their town there, 
and named it Chillicothe.^ 

An important step, in its way, was now taken by the 
General Government. To facilitate access to the Terri- 



OHIO BECOMES A STATE, 1803 



201 



tor J a road was begun this year (1796), across southern 
Ohio, from Wheeling to Maysville, Ivy. It was an early 
declaration of the right, on the part of the United States, 
to make what presently assumed the name, and aroused 
much opposition also, as " internal improvements." * 
This subject will be referred to later on. 

Ebenezer Zane,^ the contractor, was to have certain 




OLD COURT-HOUSE, CHILLICOTHE, O. 



Ohio lands in payment. His road, long known as Zane's 
Trace, was at first only a bridle-path, made passable at 
wet crossings by laying down saplings, quaintly called 
there " corduroy." Gradually widened to admit wagons, 
this primitive road became the great post-route between 
AVashingtou and Kentucky ; better still, it gave life to 
many thriving settlements. 



202 OHIO BECOMES A 8TATE, 1803 

For instance, on liis oAvn gnint, at the crossing of the 
Muskingum, Zane and John Mclntire began building 
Zanesville (1799). New Lancaster was also started by 
them the next year (at the Hockhocking), mostly with 
emigrants from Pennsylvania. 

Assured progress is now best evinced in the rapid 
steps taken toward political sovereignty. No sooner 
did the people begin to feel their power, than straightway 
they resolved to assert it, partly on their own behalf, 
partly to make themselves heard in the national councils, 
and their votes felt in the national elections, in the is- 
sues of which they had a deep interest. 

The Territory being found (1798) to have five thousand 
white inhabitants, the right to hold a general election for 
members of an assembly was carried into effect. The 
members-elect of this first legislative body met at Cin- 
cinnati, in September, 1799. It contained some very 
able men, who have left their impress on the history of 
the West, foremost among whom, perhaps, was William 
Henry Harrison, already known as a rising man, and 
now sent as a delegate to Congress by this first as- 
sembly. 

This action was but the prelude to one still more im- 
portant. The people were quite as broadly divided on 
national politics as on local issues. One party ardently 
desired admission into the Union ; another, at the head 
of which was Governor St. Clair, as ardently opposed ad- 
mission. The issue was joined upon the question of 
changing the boundaries of the unborn States, as pre- 
scribed by the Ordinance of 1787. Agitation began on 
these lines, the opponents of admission trying to attain 
their end by getting the old west line set aside, and a 
new one drawn at the Scioto. They insisted that the 



OHIO BECOMES A STATE, 1803 203 



time had not yet come for admission ; that they were 
too much scattered, too poor — in fine, unprepared to as- 
sume the important functions of a sovereign State. 

They were unsuccessfuL By an act of Congress (May, 
1800) the Territory Avas divided by the Greenville Treaty 
line, from the Ohio north to Fort Recovery, thence due 
north again through Michigan. All east of this line con- 
tinued to be known as the Northwest Territory ; all west 
as the Indiana Territory. While thus deviating some- 
what from the original boundaries, the act declared that 
whenever a new State should be created, the old line 
must be restored, as the Ordinance provided. Chilli- 
cothe Avas made the capital of the eastern, and Yincennes 
of the western division. 

Further indications of progress, and its demands, ap- 
pear in the formation of Adams and Jefferson Counties 
in 1797, and of Eoss in 1798. Clermont and Fairfield 
Avere created in 1800, and Belmont in 1801, thus making 
nine subdivisions organized in the tAveh^e years since the 
first landing at Marietta.^ Few States have shown a 
more robust growth ; none cleared the way to local self- 
gOA^ernment so soon. 

The quarrel betAveen the factions for, and against, ad- 
mission Avas carried before Congress, with the result that 
a so-called enabling act Avas passed (1802), authorizing 
the people of the eastern division to meet in convention, 
for the purpose of deciding this important question for 
themselves. The old boundary AA^as restored, but Michi- 
gan "^ Avas thereby cut off, though the act provided for at- 
taching her to the neAv State at a future time. 

All male citizens of the United States, of full age, Avho 
should have been residents of the Territory for one year, 
and haA^e paid taxes therein, Avere declared qualified to 



204 



OHIO BECOMES A STATE, 1803 



Yote for members of the convention, which was to meet at 
Chillicothe, on the lirst Monday in November, 1802. 
ShoukI the act be accepted, the convention was author- 
ized to form a State constitution,^ and set up a State 
government at once. At first it was given one representa- 
tive in the Lower House of Congress. 

As essential parts of the enabling act, the convention 
was to accept or reject the following propositions, to 
wit : That one section in every township should be granted 
to such township for schools ; that the reserved salt 
springs should also be granted to the State ; that one-twen- 
tieth of the net proceeds, accruing from sales of the pub- 
lic lands in the State, should be applied to the laying out 
and making of public roads, leading from the navigable 
waters of the Atlantic to the Ohio, to the said State, and 
through the same ; ^ such roads to be laid out under the 
authority of Congress. All this was to be the dowry of 
the new State, provided that she should, in return, exempt 
all government lands from taxation. 

The convention met, as prescribed ; a State constitu- 
tion was framed and adopted ; a general election held in 
January (1803) for State officers ; and March 1, on the 
assembling of the newly chosen Legislature, the State of 
Ohio assumed full sovereignty, as one of the United 
States of America.^^ 



1 Watne himself, after taking posses- 
sion of Detroit for the United States, died 
at Presqueisle (Erie), Pa., December 15, 
1796. 

2 Dayton. These settlers entered by 
permission of Governor St. Clair : Jona. 
Dayton, Israel Ludlow, and Gen. W^ilkin- 
son, who had bought of Symmes. After 
the collapse of Symmes's title, that of 
these purchasers was confirmed by the 
Government. The junction of Mad 



River with the Great Miami here, pointed 
to Dayton as one of the important centres 
of the future. 

^ CniLLicoTHE seems to have been the 
generic Shawnee term for any large town. 
Tliree or more are found at different 
points in Ohio. The settlement was nota- 
bly increased (1798), by the arrival of 
some Virginians, among whom were 
Worthington, Tifttn, and Lucas — all sub- 
sequently governors of Ohio. 



INDIANA TERRITORY. 1800-1812 



205 



'• Internal improvements. Of the 
two political parties of the day. the Fed- 
eralists believed that the public moneys 
could be used for building roads, canals, 
etc., as well as for forts, etc., while the 
Republicans believed such use to be un- 
constitutional. 

= Ebenezer Zane : refer back to p. 
105. 

•^ The military bounty lands, " be- 
tween the Reserve and the north line of 
the Seven Ranges and of the Ohio Com- 
pany's lands, stretching across from 
Pennsylvania to the Scioto, brought in a 
large immigration of Pennsylvania Ger- 
mans. A strong element of the Scotch- 
Irish from the same quarter also entered 
this middle belt, and was gradually dif- 
fused through the State."— King's Ohio, 
p. 281. 



' Michigan was, in fact, attached to 
Indiana until 1805, when a separate Ter- 
ritory was formed of it . 

o There was no provision here, as in 
the case of some States of later origin, re- 
quiring the submission of the State con- 
stitution to the Congress. 

* This apparently explicit language 
gave rise to warm discussion in the Con- 
gress of 1825. 

1" One of the United States. The 
new State constitution provided that the 
Territorial government should remain in 
force until superseded by the election 
and qualifying of the new State officers 
and Legislature. Congress recognized the 
State in form February 19, 1803 ; but it 
is clear that Congress could not forestall 
the acts of the people, as prescribed by 
itself, by a simple declaration. 



INDIANA TERRITORY, 1800-1812 



Harrison had been appointed governor of Indiana in 
the year 1800. Leaving Michigan out, there were, per- 
haps, five thousand white people in the territory, divided 
about equally east and west of the Wabash. In the old 
French settlements some slaves continued to be held in 
violation of the Ordinance, but inasmuch as a majority 
favored slavery, so far from enforcing the Ordinance, 
Congress was being constantly prayed to set aside that 
unpopular requirement. But this the Congress could 
not lawfully do.^ 

The agitation upon this pregnant subject could have 
no other tendency than to check immigration. Those 
who desired slavery hesitated to take their slaves where 
they would be legally free; and those who detested 
slavery would not go Avhere they feared it would be 
forced upon them, even against the law ; so that Indiana 



206 INDIANA TERRITOKY, 1800-1812 

was not filling up as fast as Ohio liad done. If we look 
at the interior, w^e find it practically a wilderness still. 
Settlements were few and far between ; and what there 
were, had mostly grown up aronnd the rim of the Ter- 
ritory, on its navigable w^aters, leaving a vast interior to 
its primeval solitude.^ 

Of the old settlements, Yincennes was still the im- 
portant centre and capital. Of the new, Clark's Grant, at 
the Falls of the Ohio, was, perhaps, the most flourishing. 
North of Yincennes, watered by the Wabash, stretched 
the Indian Country to the lakes — congenial home of the 
mixed tribes, who had been fighting in retreat ever since 
the whites had first crossed the Ohio. 

In 1803, Mr. Jefferson being then President, the United 
States bought all Louisiana ^ from France, thus opening 
the Mississi]3pi to the commerce of the West, and so con- 
firming the unity of the whole country, by doing away 
with all those vexatious restrictions which designing 
men had used to draw the East and West apart. 

For the purposes of government Upper Louisiana was 
attached to Indiana. Governor Harrison therefore took 
possession of it for the United States, at St. Louis, 
in 1804. 

In 1805 Indiana elected her first territorial legislature ; 
and in 1809 the next step was taken toward political 
unity by setting off Illinois, practically on the present 
boundaries. By the act of division, both the legislative 
council and the representative ^ in Congress, as well as 
the assembly, Avere to be elected by the people. 

Whatever their political differences might be, there 
was always one subject upon which all new settlers were 
fully agreed; and that was to get rid of the Indians. 
There was not even the excuse of beino; crowded. More 



INDIANA TERRITORY, 1800-1812 



207 



than ten thousand square miles of vacant lands was 
surely more than enough for the wants of twenty-five 
hundred people. But a strange sort of feeling had 
grown up on the frontier, that it was the Indians who 
were intruders ; still more strange was the feeling that 
they were not to be dealt by as other men, but as some- 
thing less than men. If the Indians would sell their 
lands on the white 
men's terms, well 
and good ; if not a 
way would be found 
to make them do 
it. This cruel pol- 
icy has been the 
one prolific cause 
of our Indian wars 
from first to last. 
Everybody has de- 
nounced it, but no- 
body has put a stop 
to it. In conse- 
quence, there are 
few treaties with 
the Indians that 
Avill bear the scru- 
tiny of honest men. 
Most of them have been obtained either by fraud or force. 
When his lands were taken from him by conquest, the 
Indian bore it like a man of courage ; but when he had 
been cheated of them, his one resource was revenge. 

In common with other governors, Harrison had set 
about getting cessions of lands, first from one tribe, then 
from another, as one of his first duties. And in so do- 




i>;i 
4^^ 



WILLIAM HKNRY HARRISON. 



INDIANA TERRITOKY, 1800-1812 



209 



ing he was only carrying out tlie wishes of his people. 
It is true that certain of the Indians were always will- 
ing to sell their lands for a song, to repent afterward. 
But, generally speaking, the Indians were averse to mak- 
ing these sales, which up to 1809 footed up no less than 
three million acres in Indiana alone. 

This work did not proceed without opposition. Cer- 
tain leading chiefs 
vigorously remon- 
strated against it, 
but to no effect. 
Greed on one side, 
and apathy on the 
other, baffled all 
their efforts. 

Certain crises in 
their history have 
produced great men 
among the Indians, 
as Avell as whites. 
Philip and Pontiac 
were two such men. 
Another now arose 
in Indiana, to re- 
new the old, hope- 
less struggle against 
the eA^er advancing whites. His name was Tecumseh.'' 

Tecumseh broadly held that no one or two tribes 
could make treaties, conveying away lands, without the 
consent of all, and that all such treaties were therefore 
void. The United States held that such treaties were 
binding, but to this decision Tecumseh would not sub- 
mit, and so war was the result. 
14 




TECUMSEH. 



210 INDIANA TERRITORY, 1800-1812 

Tecumseh had a brother, called the Prophet, because 
he boldly declared himself able to foretell coming events, 
and even pretended to control them. As all Indians are 
deeply superstitious, the Prophet soon acquired great 
power, which he artfully used to inflame the old enmity 
against the Avhites, while his greater brother was work- 
ing to the same end in a different way. And each, in 
his own way, was onlv too successful. Tecumseh ap- 
pealed to the Indians to strike for their rights ; the 
Prophet assured them that his charms would render 
them invulnerable in battle. 

Governor Harrison did not fail to call the plotters to 
an account. The Prophet denied everything. Tecum- 
seh, on the contrary, met the governor boldly. He came 
down to Vincennes attended by four hundred fully 
armed warriors, and in a speech of great dignity and 
eloquence stated the grievances of his people. 

When he had finished, an aid, pointing to a vacant 
chair, said to Tecumseh, " Your father requests you to 
take a seat by his side." DraAving his mantle around 
him, the chief proudly exclaimed, " My father ! The 
sun is my father, and the earth my mother; on her 
bosom I will repose." He then seated himself upon the 
bare ground, where he had stood. 

After this, Tecumseh travelled among all the tribes 
far and near, in the hope of uniting them against the 
whites. His well-laid plans were, however, hopelessly 
wrecked by the headlong folly of his brother, the Proph- 
et, who, meantime, was gathering his followers together, 
where the Tippecanoe runs into the Wabash. This was 
assuming a too threatening position toward the whites at 
Vincennes to let pass unnoticed. Alive to the danger, 
Harrison sent various messengers there, who brought 



INDIANA TERRITORY, 1800-1812 211 

back word that the Prophet breathed nothing but defi- 
ance. To one of them he had angrily said, pointing to 
the ground, " There is your grave, look on it ! " 

Finding the Indians thus hostile, Harrison marched at 
the head of nine hundred men to break up their camp. 
He halted, where the city of Terre Haute now stands, 
long enough to build Fort Harrison, and then pushed on 
toward the Prophet's town, so called. 

When he had come before it, some chiefs came out to 
beg for delay, promising if he would grant it that every- 
thing he asked should be agreed to the next day. De- 
ceived by their promises Harrison immediately granted 
their request. He even pitched his camp on a spot 
pointed out by these false messengers.^ 

Tents were pitched, sentinels posted, fires built around 
the camp, and the men lay on their arms, awaiting the 
tap of the morning drum. The night was pitch dark and 
rainy. The vigilant sentinels paced their lonely rounds, 
listening to the pattering of the rain-drops among the 
bushes, that here and there skirted the camp in broken 
clumps or scattered copses. All seemed quiet. 

But in the still, small hours of the morning, under 
cover of these bushes, the Indians were closing uj) around 
the camp, themselves unseen and unheard ; while the 
watch-fires lighted up the camp to their rifles. Thus 
they surrounded it. To prevent their giving an alarm? 
the sentinels were shot at with arrows. Some left their 
posts in a fright ; one only fired and ran in. The Ind- 
ians then rose up in a body, and made a dash for the 
camp, discharging their rifles into the tents, filling the 
air with horrid yells, startling the soldiers from their 
sleep to fight singly or in little groups, hand to hand, 
against the on-rushing swarm of assailants. 



212 



INDIANA TERllITORY, 1800-1812 



By throwing in fresh troops at the point of attack, the 
combat was stubbornly maintained and the ground held, 
though not without heavy loss by reason of the sudden- 
ness of the onset. From this point, the attack gradually 
drifted around the camp, where the troops were now 
formed ready to repel it. 




BATTLE-FIELD OP TIPPECANOE. 



While the battle was thus raging in the dim twilight be- 
fore dawn, the Prophet took his stand on a woody hillock, 
quite out of reach of the flying bullets, where he chanted 
his war-songs, and performed his incantations that were 
to make victory sure. 

As a rule, if the Indians did not succeed in their first 
onset, they were eventually beaten. It was so here at 



INDIANA TERRITOIIY, 1800-1812 



213 



Tippecanoe. The Americans were bravely led in suc- 
cessive charges, until the enemy had been forced a mus- 
ket-shot back from around the camp. This done, they 
were driven from the field altogether by a final charge, 
before which they scattered in flight, leaving their 
abandoned town to the victors. This, with its stores of 
corn, w^as immediately destroyed, after which the army 
marched back to Vincennes. It was in no condition to 
fight another battle. One hundred and eighty men were 
killed and wounded. Among other valuable officers, 
Major Daviess, of the Kentucky horse, was killed while 
gallantly leading a charge. 

This memorable battle in the dark was fought Novem- 
ber 7, 1811. Tecumseh returned only to find his plans 
completely ruined. In despair he went over to the 
English, with whom we were now on the verge of war. 
The false Prophet sank into obscurity and disgrace, as he 
so richly merited. 



1 The struggle over slavery is ex- 
haustively treated of in Dunn's Indiana. 

2 Nearly the whole white population 
of what is now Indiana was either 
settled in Clark's Grant or in and about 
Vincennes. Clark's Grant comprised 
two and a half leagues square, at the 
Falls, given him first by the Indians 
and later confirmed to him by Virginia. 

3 Louisiana purchase was strongly 
opposed at the East as umvise, unneces- 
sary, and unconstitutional. Jefferson's 
known partiality for France was the 
alleged motive for his activity in the 



matter, or as Madison is said to have 
put it, " France wants it, and must have 
it." referring to the fifteen millions of 
purchase-money. See The Making of 
the Great West, pp. lTl-183. 

4 Territorial representatives had 
no vote, but could speak in Congress. 

^ Tecumseh. or Tecumtha, was a 
Shawnee, born of a Creek mother, near 
Springfield, O. 

•^ Tippecanoe battle-ground is seven 
miles north of Lafayette. See plan in 
Lossing's If ar of 1812, p. 205. 



214 A STAMPEDE OF HORSES 

A STAMPEDE OF HORSES 

[By an Office f of the Guard] 

"About June 10, 1812, at two o'clock in the morning, 
while Colonel Richard M. Johnson's regiment was en- 
camped on the peninsula, below Fort Wayne, in a beau- 
tiful grass plain, some of the horses that had passed the 
line of sentinels, and got some distance up the St. Joseph, 
became alarmed, and came running back into camp in 
a great fright. 

" This frightened all the horses in the regiment, which 
fell into a solid column within the lines, and took three 
rapid courses round the camp. It would seem almost 
incredible, but is no less a fact, that they did not appear 
to cover more than about forty by sixty yards of ground, 
and yet there were about six hundred in the band. The 
moon shone at the full, the camp was an open plain, and 
the sight awfully sublime. 

" The terrified horses at length forced their way through 
the lines, overset several tents, carried aAvay several 
panels of fence, darted off through the woods, and were 
in a few minutes out of hearing of the loudest bells that 
belonged to the regiment. The next day was spent in 
collecting them. Some were found ten miles from camp ; 
some were never found, although followed for more than 
twenty miles. 

" This alarming flight injured the horses more than could 
have been supposed, for they had run so long, in such a 
compact body, that very few escaped without being lamed, 
their hind feet having been cut by the shoes of those 
crowding upon them." 



MICHIGAN AND THE WAR OF 1813 215 



MICHIGAN AND THE WAR OF 1812 

Within the short space of about twenty years, which 
we have so briefly reviewed, the ahnost uninhabited 
Northwest had become the home of two hundred and 
seventy thousand settlers, of whom Ohio had more than 
two-thirds (230,760) ; Kentucky alone (1810) had more 
people than all the territory north of the Ohio. Count- 
ing hers, there were, in all, about seven hundred thou- 
sand, or about one-eleventh of the whole population of 
the United States. This was certainly a great rec- 
ord. 

Most unhappily, however, this prosperity was now 
checked by the breaking out of war with England.^ War 
with all the world, and peace with England, was an old 
Spanish maxim. War with England was, at any time, a 
serious thing, a deplorable thing, but to a country with- 
out either an army or navy, like the United States, while 
England had the best of both, the outlook was by no 
means promising. Worse still, most of the seaboard 
States were bitterly opposed to the war — Mr. Madison's 
war, as they called it. But with good or bad grace, our 
raw recruits were now called upon to meet the veterans 
of Yittoria, Salamanca, and Toulouse. 

Though this war chiefly grew out of England's insolent 
aggressions^ on the high seas, so far from escaping its 
rage the New AYest was the first to feel it. Indeed, we 
may well consider it as beginning here, with the battle of 
Tippecanoe, as that victory had driven all who followed 
Tecumseh over to the English, whom they now looked 
upon as the deliverers of their country. 

Certain it was, therefore, that most, if not all, the Ind- 



216 



MICHIGAN AND THE AVAR OF 1813 



iaus of the Northwest would be found fighting against us, 
with better hope of success than ever. 

That was one ahirming fact. Another was that in the 
event of war we must either give up the lake frontier al- 
together and see our out-settlements ravaged, or we must 
be ready to defend it by holding fast to Michilimackinac, 
Detroit, Presqueisle, and Fort Wayne. There was really 



fc?9?SE#S:.^r%, 







DETROIT IN 1815. 



no alternative but to defend it. Yet this was easier said 
than done. As yet our settlements scarcely reached back 
fifty miles from the Ohio. Here everything must first be 
collected — -men, animals, wagons, stores, munitions of 
war, and all the rest. The frontier, then, would have to 
be defended from a base two hundred miles away, joined 
to it by a single road, so long and so perilous that every 
supply train would have to go prepared to fight its way 



michiga:n^ ai^d the war of I812 217 

tlirougli. Unless, therefore, this very long line could be 
kept open, an army acting on the frontier would be cut 
off from its supplies. If it could not retreat, it would 
have to surrender. 

If, now, we look at this distant frontier, shortly to be 
menaced by a host of enemies, we see Detroit closing ac- 
cess to all that great girdle of lakes at the Avest and north- 
west. It is also seen that Lake Erie offers by far the 
best route for supplying Detroit. Unfortunately for us, 
England had taken the command of that lake and pur- 
posed keeping it. She had the vessels, and we had none. 
She had a fort and dockyard at Maiden, where it would 
be easy to intercept everything bound to Detroit, or to 
fit out expeditions against our frontier posts. At the 
beginning of the war, therefore, the odds were heavily 
against us. 

When Michigan was set off, in 1805, its population 
was put at 4,000 persons, mostly French Canadians. In 
1810 it was only 4,762. Besides Detroit and Michili- 
mackinac, a few settlers were living at Frenchtown ^ 
(Monroe) or along the Kaisin, in its vicinity. All else 
was a wilderness. 

Besides the old lake posts, so often mentioned, we had 
built one at Chicago, in 1802, since called Fort Dear- 
born," in which a few soldiers Avere kept. 

The American plan was to carry the war into Canada. 
This was a line, five hundred miles long, stretching from 
Plattsburg to Detroit. If the great lakes had not so 
broken it up as to offer few real points of attack, all the 
armies of Europe could not have kept it intact. These 
points were Plattsburg, Niagara, and Detroit, on our side, 
and Kingston, Toronto, and Maiden on the enemy's." 
All were too widely separated to assist each other except 



218 MICHIGAN AND THE WAR OF 1813 

by water. Whoever, tlien, slionld get control of the lakes, 
would be the probable victor in the coming contest. 

When Michigan was made a Territory, William Hull 
was appointed governor, with Detroit as the capital. 

Hull Avas a brave veteran of the Revolution, who in 
ordinary times, no doubt, would have made an excellent 
ruler, but unfortunately for him he was no Wayne, and 
nobody but a Wayne or a Clarke could successfully have 
struggled against the situation Hull was now placed in. 
Besides, Hull was too old for active service, yet he ac- 
cepted the command, and his reputation as a military 
man must rest upon the result. In war that rule is inex- 
orable. 

Under the plan, as outlined, Hull was to begin the in- 
vasion, while other captains were to follow it up, from 
west to east. To combine operations, on so long a line, 
was something that not even a Napoleon could have 
counted on. The plain fact is that we had no generals " 
capable of handling armies or planning campaigns. 
Hence disaster followed disaster, in quick succession. 

Hull had two thousand men, drawn from Kentuckj", 
Ohio, and Indiana, some good soldiers, but mostly raw 
recruits, under loose discipline. He had marched them 
over a new" road, cut by him, from Urbana to the 
Maumee Rapids, by way of Kenton and Findlay. With 
these he crossed into Canada, as ordered (July 12th), 
with the view of taking Maiden. He, however, halted at 
Sandwich, heard with alarm that Michilimackinac had 
fallen on the 16th, remained inactive and irresolute until 
August 7th, Avhen the news that a convoy of provisions 
from Ohio had been cut off seems to have decided him 
to recross the river to Detroit, the better to protect his 
own communications. 



MICHIGAT^ AND THE WAR OF 1813 



219 



From here he despatched nearly half his force to bring 
tip the derelict convoy, thus seriously crippling his means 
of defence. Brock/ the British commander, a man ^s 
bold and energetic as Hull was timid and irresolute, im- 
mediately followed Hull across the river, posted his 





MICHILIMACKINAC. 



troops around De- 
troit, and sum- 
moned it to sur- 
render. To this 
demand Hull^ 
weakly yielded, 
and he and his 
army became prisoners of war (August 16tli). 

Still another misfortune befell the West. This was 
the capture of the garrison at Chicago, which Hull had 
ordered to Fort Wayne, upon hearing that Michilimack- 
inac was taken. Without suspecting it, the soldiers of 
this garrison were really no better than prisoners, already 



220 



MICHIGAI^ AND THE WAR OF 1812 



doomed to destruction. Tliere was a large encampment 
of Pottawatomies outside the fort, watching for a favora- 
ble moment to fall upon them unawares. No sooner had 
the ill-fated soldiers begun their march than they wJre 
fiercely set upon by these savages. Finding they were to 





BATTLE OF CHICAGO. 



be all killed, the for- 
lorn little band re- 
solved to sell their 
lives as dearly as pos- 
sible. The wives of the soldiers heroically fought at 
their side, and shared their wounds. By desperate fight- 
ing a third part succeeded in cutting their way through 
the swarm of foes, but having lost all their horses, bag- 
gage, and provisions, they, too, were forced to surrende'^^ 
upon promise of their lives being spared. This horrid 



MICHIGAN AND THE WAR OF 1813 221 

affair^ took place on August 15tli. One monster was 
seen to climb up into a wagon, in which twelve little 
children had been put, and tomahawk them all, one after 
another. 

These reverses turned every Indian tomahawk in the 
Northwest against the Americans. Tecumseh was tire- 
less in bringing this about. 

Having swept away the outposts, the British and Ind- 
ians now swarmed down upon the interior forts. First 
Fort Wayne was assaulted ; then Fort Harrison. At both, 
however, the assailants were beaten off until relief came. 
Fort Harrison was stoutly defended by Captain Zachary 
Taylor, later President of the United States. 

From every quarter troops were being hurried to the 
threatened posts. Governor Harrison had promptly put 
himself at the head of those marching to the relief of 
Fort Wayne. Here he was superseded by General Win- 
chester,'*^ whose assumption of the command, by virtue 
of his rank, nearly caused a mutiny. 

Ignorant that the invaders were falling back before 
him, Winchester slowly marched down to Defiance. 
Here he halted and intrenched. Meantime, Harrison 
had been put in chief command again, and was now busy 
collecting a new army in the rear of the first. Having 
secured his outposts, he fixed his headquarters at Frank- 
linton, a new village, situated opposite Columbus,^^ in the 
heart of the State. 

The autumn was spent in laying waste all the Indian 
villages within reach — a cruel but sure way of keeping 
the war at a distance ; the winter in dragging cannon 
from Pittsburg, and stores from Cincinnati, across the 
swamps of northern Ohio ; in opening roads, enlisting 
recruits, and in getting ready for the spring campaign. 



222 MICHIGAN AND THE WAR OF 1812 

In anticipation of tiiis event, Lower Sandusky (Fremont, 
O.) was strongly occupied. 

Meantime, Winchester decided to take a more ad- 
vanced position. He therefore marched down to the 
Maumee Rapids, the last of December. Half way be- 
tween him and Detroit lay Frenchtown, then held by the 
enemy. After a short halt, a detachment was sent to 
drive them out of this place, which was handsomely done, 
January 18th. The rest of the army came up on the 
19th, was disgracefully surprised on the 22d, held its 
ground in one part of the field, only to be driven from it 
in another, and surrendered the same day. As the 
wounded were inhumanly butchered by the Indians, this 
battle was long known as the " Massacre of the Raisin." 

Harrison hastened to Winchester's assistance, but he 
was too late. The blow staggered even him. Here was 
another army gone, general and all, and all the conquered 
ground lost. He first abandoned the Rapids, then went 
back there again, convinced that this post must be held 
at all risks. So the men were set to building a stronger 
work, now called Fort Meigs. '^ 

The Americans having also met with defeat on the 
Niagara frontier, this had everywhere been a losing 
campaign, except on the ocean. Strange to say, we had 
been victorious where we had least reason to expect it. 

The spring campaign of 1813 now opened. It was 
Harrison's task to -recapture Detroit, restore Michigan, 
and destroy the enemy's forces in that quarter. Of all 
the commanders, he was the only one to perform the part 
assigned him. 

The enemy, however, was first in the field. In April, 
the British general. Proctor, laid siege to Fort Meigs, 
where Harrison was waiting for reinforcements to be- 



MICHIGAN AND TflE WAR OF 1812 



223 



gin the campaign. Half of these were cut to pieces, op- 
posite to the fort ; the rest fought their way into it. 
Proctor was thus obliged to raise the siege and retreat 
to Maiden. 

A fleet was now building at Erie, designed to act with 
Harrison's army on Lake Erie. It vindicated Hull's 




DEFENCE OF FORT STEPHENSON (FREMONT, O.) 

declaration, that there could be no successful invasion of 
Canada without a fleet. Even a Harrison would have 
shrunk from the task. Cleveland and Upper Sandusky 
were made depots. Early in August, the vigilant enemy 
made a most determined attack u^^^n Fort Stephenson 
(Fremont, O.). It was bravely repulsed by Major 
Croghan, a mere youth of twenty-one. 



224 



MICHIGAN AND THE WAR OF 1812 



The new fleet was at last afloat, and Captain Perry, of 
Rhode Island, was put in command of it. In every re- 
spect was the choice a fortunate one. Perry was cool, 
energetic, and a fighter to his finger's' ends. The enemy 
had collected a fleet at Maiden, to oj^pose him. Perry's 
orders to his captains were given in Nelson's own words : 
" If you lay your enemy close alongside, you cannot 

be out of your 
places." 

From Erie our 
fleet sailed to 
Put-in-Bay, just 
north of SandiTS- 
ky, where Perry 
and Harrison met 
to concert a plan 
of action. On 
the morning of 
September lOtli 
the enemy's fleet 
was seen in the 
ofling, boldly of- 
fering battle. 
Perry sailed out 
to meet it, flying 
at his peak a sig- 
nal-flag bearing the ever-famous motto of " Don't give up 
the ship." ^'■^ 

At first the battle went against him. The wind was 
too light to bring his vessels into close action, as he had 
meant to do, so the enemy's heavier guns reached Perry 
long before his could reach them ; and their fire 
being all turned against the flag-ship, it was soon left a 




COMMODORE O. H. PERRY. 



MICHIGAN AND THE WAR OF 1813 225 

floating wreck, encumbered with the dead and dying. 
For a time it looked as if the inspiriting order of " Don't 
give up the ship " would prove a sad mockery ; but 
Perry soon showed himself equal to the crisis. Taking 
his flag with him, he went in an open boat through tlie 
storm of fire, to the Niagara, again hoisted his flag, and 
with that fresh shij:) once more led his remaining vessels 
so vigorously to the attack, that by three o'clock all of 
the enemy's had struck their colors. 

The whole story is modestly told in Perry's laconic 
despatch to Harrison : " AVe have met the enemy, and 
they are ours ; two ships, two brigs, one schooner and 
one sloop." 

On the 27th Perry's ships landed Harrison's army on 
the Canada side, to attack Maiden. They found it aban- 
doned and Detroit evacuated. These Avere the immedi- 
ate results of Perry's victory. 

Having brought only his infantry with him, Harrison 
now had to wait for Johnson's mounted riflemen to join 
him. As soon as they had done so, the army at once 
pushed on in pursuit of the enemy. He was found 
strongly posted on the river Thames,^* near the Moravian 
town. On flnding the British formed in open order, 
Harrison promptly ordered Johnson's troopers to charge 
them. These daring horsemen first rode through the Brit- 
ish line, then, turning upon it from the rear, cut it to pieces, 
capturing many prisoners, and putting that wing to rout. 

Led by Tecumseh, the Indians made a much more 
stubborn fight, but they, too, soon scattered before the 
determined onset of the Americans, leaving their great 
leader dead on the field. On neither side were the losses 
heavy, but with Tecumseh's fall, the confederacy of which 
he was the master spirit fell utterly to pieces. 
15 



226 



MICHIGAN AND THE WAR OF 1813 



Lewis Cass, who had fought under Harrison, was now 
appointed governor of Michigan. With these events, the 
war in the West practically ended. 

It left the people impoverished. There had not been 
time to accumulate wealth or establish credit. A season 
of business depression followed, until time brought re- 
lief. As a rule, the first comers had not brought much 
money with them or paid for their lands. Their money 
had been spent for first improvements, and they now 
OAved for their lands. Yet there were steady gains in 
population. Roads that had been cut for the passage 
of armies were now thronged with a more thrifty class of 
settlers. In Ohio, Columbus had grown up during the 
war. In 1815 it had tAvo hundred houses, seven hundred 
people, and was building a State house. In 1816 it be- 
came the capital of the State. 



1 War with England was declared 
June, 1812. 

2 England's aggressions, chiefly in 
searching our vessels for British subjects. 

3 Frenchtown (Monroe) and the River 
Raisin, began to be settled by French 
families, as the name implies, in 1784. 
There were also a few on the Rouge 
(Red) and at Grosse (Grand) Isle. 

4 Fort Dearborn got its name from 
the general commanding the army. It 
was rebuilt 1816, after cession by the 
Pottawatomies of all the land on which 
the city of Chicago now stands, 

5 For points of contact, refer to the 
map. 

6 No generals. Dearborn, Hull, and 
Wilkinson were all failures. As the war 
progressed, it brought out excellent mil- 
itary talent. 

^ Sir Isaac Brock, after defeating 
Hull, went to the defence of the Niagara 
frontier, where he was killed in battle 
October 13, 1812. 



«HuLL was tried by a court-martial, 
and condemned to be shot, but was par- 
doned in consideration of former ser- 
vices. 

» The Battle of Chicago took place 
on ground now within the city limits. 
See note 4, which fixes an important his- 
torical date with respect to the rise of 
that city. 

1" James Winchester, of Tennessee, 
made a brigadier in April, 1812 ; had 
seen service in the Revolutionary 
War. 

11 Columbus was then covered by a 
forest, but dates its beginning from this 
time. 

IMPORT Meigs stood opposite to Mau- 
mee City. Its importance, with respect 
to operations against Detroit, made it a 
special object of attack. 

1 3 Dying words of Captain Lawrence, 
of the Chesapeake. 

14 Thames Battle-ground is about 
eighteen miles above Chatham. 



TECUMSEH 227 



TECUMSEH 

"It was a bright autumnal day, when the army of 
General Harrison, under the escort of Commodore Perry's 
little fleet, sailed out of Put-in-Bay for Maiden. The 
warlike array of the little squadron, still scored with 
marks of the recent victory, the fluttering of pennants 
and waving of battle-flags, and the glitter of burnished 
muskets as the boats swept on to the shore, formed a 
truly animating and imposing sight. 

" Their course lay along that part of the lake which 
had been the scene of conflict but a few days before, and 
terrible reminders of that bloody day still surrounded 
them, in the blackened and mangled bodies of the dead. 

" As they drew nigh to the Canadian shore, an object 
was seen, flitting along the l)each, now darting with rapid 
movement down the entire front of the approaching fleet, 
then leisurely pausing as if to reconnoitre. A nearer 
view showed a trim and athletic horseman, mounted on 
an Indian pony, dressed in a belted hunting-frock of 
smoked deerskin, with long gaiters, strapped below the 
knee, and richly ornamented moccasins. It was the 
celebrated Tecumseh, who, notwithstanding the flight of 
his white ally, had lingered behind to ascertain the force 
of the invading enemy. When he had satisfied himself 
on this point, he withdrew without haste, as if in dignified 
defiance, to carry his intelligence to his comrades." 



228 Johnson's kentuckians 



JOHNSON'S KENTUCKIANS 

"A PART of the Kentucky troop of horse, under the 
command of Colonel Johnson, still following upon the 
tracks of General Proctor, after the battle of the Thames, 
took possession of the Moravian town, which had been 
but recently evacuated by the enemy. These wild and 
fearless riders, to whom all peril was but a pastime, were 
already rendered furious by the cold and savage butch- 
eries, which had spilled the best blood of Kentucky like 
water. When, therefore, orders were given to lire the 
rows of deserted log-cabins, which formed the town, these 
wild riders, in the mere Avantonness of daring, scoured 
furiously through the streets. Availed in as they were on 
either side by sheets of flame, their vicious and half- 
tamed animals to all aj)pearance equally elated Avitli the 
strange glee of their masters. The very appearance of 
these mad w^arriors must have been semi-barbarous, 
bearded and broAvned as they Avere by exposure, and at- 
tired in the costume of the backAVOodsmen, Avitli their 
carbines slung at their backs, the long hunting-knife 
thrust into the belt of the deerskin frock, and the can- 
teen slung from the bearskin saddle-bows. This, Avitli 
the roaring of the conflagration, the crash of falling tim- 
bers, the shouts of these desperate troopers, and the 
clattering of their horses as they burst through the smoke 
and flames, must have presented as strange and stirring 
a picture as has ever been sketched by the j)encil of ro- 
mance," 



THE NATIONAL KOAD 



229 



THE NATIONAL ROAD 

In all ages, men and nations have been mostly con- 
trolled by purely selfish motives in whatever concerned 
the course of politics or trade. It was so with the hand- 
ful of settlers in the Ohio Valley, and it will probably be 
so to the end of time. 

Eemoteness began to be felt, first as a serious hin- 
drance to rapid prosperity, and then as a grievance to 
be redressed in one way or another. With the rise of a 
feeling that they were being neglected, added to that of 




OLD STAGE-WAGON. 



a growing power within themselves, sentimental attach- 
ment to the Union began to cool. 

But when that remoteness was felt to be steadily draw- 
ing East and West apart, statesmen began to be alarmed 
for the national unity, and with good reason. Already 
disunion was being openly talked of in Kentucky ; already 
the prospects of a Western Confederacy were being coldly 
discussed ; already demagogues were asking, not what 
the Union had cost the whole country, but what it was 
worth to them alone. 

Though the purchase of Louisiana did much to allay 
this feeling, it could not wholly subdue it. For one 



230 



THE NATIONAL ROAD 



thing, the seat of government was at the East ; for another, 
popuhition moved from East to West. It was then seen 
that facility of communication alone covild bring these 
two widely separated sections together ; so when Ohio 
was admitted, the United States had agreed to make a 
great national highway from the navigable Avaters of the 

Atlantic slope 
to the Ohio 
River. 

This was the 
first great step 
taken in the di- 
rection of inter- 
state improve- 
ments. Some 
men were then 
dull as to its 
necessity or 
meaning, and 
some, f o r t u - 
nately, were a 
great deal wiser 
than their gen- 
eration. 

But as if to 
undo every- 
thing at its very beginning, that first of filibusters, Aaron 
Burr,^ now sent forth his secret expedition on the Ohio 
and Mississippi, for which he was arrested and tried on 
the charge of treason. Though his real aims were never 
fully revealed, his acts were believed to mask a purpose 
of taking the AVest out of the Union ; hence even Burr's 
conspiracy 




AARON BURR. 



did something 



to hasten the building of the 



THE NATIONAL KOAD 231 

public road, by bringing home to all a danger that few 
had believed to be real. 

So the attitude of the Ohio Valley undoubtedly hast- 
ened this great public work, as a direct means to the 
preservation of the Union, in like manner, and on simi- 
lar grounds of public policy, as afterward brought about 
the building of the Pacific Railway in the midst of a great 
civil war. 

Cumberland, Md., was fixed upon as the starting-point, 
and Wheeling, Va., as the one where the road should 
strike the Ohio. The distance was one hundred and 
forty-two miles. It w^as begun under an Act of Congress 
of March 29, 1806, first under the control of President 
Jefferson, and afterward under that of Albert Gallatin, 
Secretary of the Treasury. During President Madison's 
administration more than a million dollars was spent 
upon it. Up to the year 1825 it had cost a million eight 
hundred thousand dollars. 

The route mostly followed Braddock's old road beyond 
Laurel Hill, then struck off to Brownsville, formerly 
Redstone,'^ on the Monongahela. This was the Eastern 
division. Thence it ran on to Wheeling, over the West- 
ern division. 

The road was built on a much more costly plan than 
the fund set apart for the purpose justified, or its needs 
required. It was sixty-six feet wide, with a road-bed 
twenty feet in width, deeply covered with macadam. The 
bridges w^ere solid stone structures, built to last for 
years. It w^as truly a costly piece of work, but when 
completed, there were no longer any Alleghanies. 

A traveller who rode over this route in 1819 thus re- 
lates his experience : 

" Early this morning we commenced a j)erilous jour- 



232 



THE NATIONAL EOAD 



ney, ascending and descending the Alleghany Mountains 
all day. All here is wild, awfully precipitous, and darkly 
umbrageous. I almost resolved on not returning this 
way by the mail, which carries, and keeps, one, in constant 

alarm unless the 

traveller has nerves 

^^T ^_j~ ^=^ of iron o r brass. 

Such, however, is 
the expertness of 
the drivers, that 
there is no ground 



for real alarm." 

Regular and fre- 
quent communica- 
tion between West 
and East was now 
established. The 
traveller, be he mer- 
chant, politician, or 
farmer, took his seat 
in a fast mail-coach, 
dined or supped at 
an inn, and av a s 
whirled on to his des- 
tination on schedule 
time, as in the older States. Thousands travelled this 
road on foot, on horseback, in wagons, or in private 
conveyances — all pressing on toward the Ohio. Meas- 
ured by the ideas of its day, it had cost an enormous 
sum ; but if results only be considered, it is believed 
to have put forward settlement twenty 3^ears. 

1 Burr escaped convi<'tion for want of 2 Redstone (Brownsville), the site of 

proof of an overt act of treason. See Fort Burd (1759). began the settlements 
Marshall's Washington. on the Monongahela. 




■^ -^;^ 



BRADDOCK'S GRAVE, NATIONAL ROAD. 



THE FIRST STEAMBOAT 



233 



THE FIRST STEAMBOAT 

The evolution in wa3"s of travel is a distinct feature 
of Western growth, and it curiously marks off that growth 
into certain well-defined periods. First we have the Ind- 
ian's bark canoe, swift, light, portable ; next, the pirogue, 
shaped out of some great tree, clumsy, slow-moving, but 
strong, and so first used by the traders to carry cargoes 



/ 







FULTON'S STEAMBOAT. 



about ; then comes the flat-boat, or Kentucky ark, created 
at the call of the emigrant for a vessel to carry himself, 
his family, his cattle, and household property, all at one 
time. When the emigrant had reached his destination, 
this boat could be knocked to pieces, and the boards used 
to build him a house. In every sense of the word, it was 
a house-boat. 

Thus easily do we trace the finger of progress in these 



234 THE FIRST STEAMBOAT 

crude efforts of a crude people ! These boats had carried 
their thousands, but none of them made any account of 
the value of time. A tiat-boat would float with the cur- 
rent, from Pittsburg to New Orleans, in seventy-live days 
— long enough to go round the world in now. 

Meantime, a puny steam-engine had been put into a 
rude scow, with which, amid scoffings and jeers, Robert 
Fulton pushed out from New York in August, 1807, to 
breast the waters of the Hudson. The world knows the 
result. Great was the rejoicing when it was known that 
the Clermont had actually steamed five miles an hour, 
against the current, without sails or oars. To-day a 
picture of the Clermont excites only a pitying smile. 

The quickness Avith which any really great or valuable 
invention is diffused, is characteristic of the American 
people. No sooner was Fulton's proved to be so, than it 
Avas carried to Western waters, and with the launching of 
its first steamboat there, the New West unquestionably re- 
ceived its first great impulse. 

This was the New Orleans, launched in October, 1811, 
while the country was on the eve of war with England. 
As she swept down the Ohio, on her first voyage, her 
strange looks, the speed with which she moved, the mes- 
sage she carried of a new era in travel, may well have 
aroused strange thoughts in the minds of all who saw her. 

This novel ship reached Louisville after a run of seventy 
hours from Pittsburg. Owing to the low stage of water she 
was not able to continue her voyage at once, but eventually 
arrived at New Orleans on December 24th. In the inter- 
val she plied, as a packet, between Louisville and Cincin- 
nati. Then began a famous hammering along the Monon- 
gahela. A new industry sprung into life. Boat followed 
boat. The novelty soon wore off, and in a year or two 



TITE FIRST STEAMBOAT 



235 



people accepted this wonderful work of man as a thing 
already old, and were now turning their thoughts to a more 
speedy method of travel by land. 

It was not until the year 1818 that the first steamboat 
made her appearance on the lakes. She was built at 




WALK-IN-THE-WATER. 



Black Rock, significantly near the same spot where La 
Salle had launched his Griffin so long before. Quaint of 
build, quaintly named, the Walk-in-the-Water started 
from Buffalo for her first trip to Detroit on August 25th. 
Turnpikes and steamboats had fully solved the question 
of national unity. 



286 THE ERIE CANAL, 1825 



THE ERIE CANAL, 1825 

The problem of cheap and quick transportation be- 
tween East and West remained, however, to be solved by 
the Erie Canal. Undoubtedly, the New West owed 
more to that greatest undertaking of its time than to all 
other agencies put together. Its completion, therefore, 
marks an epoch in our histor3\ 

New York was still a wilderness, roamed over by Ind- 
ians, when the idea of cutting a canal from Lake Erie to 
the Hudson was first put forth. To that man's mind, it 
came like the flash of a meteor across the heavens ; and 
like the meteor it left no trace behind. But when we 
come to think seriously of it, the wonder is that the 
canal was built as early as it was. 

One man, resolutely bent on accomplishing one object, 
is always a power. From deep thinking of the subject, 
Jesse Hawley became convinced that the canal could be 
built. He first set himself to work creating a popular 
feeling in its favor. His efforts met with so much ridi- 
cule that the printer finally refused to publish anything 
more on the subject. This was in the year 1807. 

But Hawley's arguments had convinced other men, 
and that was just what he had set himself to do. In 
short, the matter was now taken up seriously. The 
State was pressed to do something to test its feasibility. 
More to get rid of the subject, than anything else, the 
slender sum of six hundred dollars was voted for a sur- 
vey. But on that very day the canal Avas built ; for 
every subsequent move fully vindicated the faith of its 
friends. 

President Jefferson's second inaugural address (March, 



THE ERIE CANAL, 1825 237 

1805), first opened the subject of applying the surphis 
revenue to the building of canals, roads, etc. An at- 
tempt was therefore made to secure national aid for the 
Erie Canal. In a personal interview with the President, 
its friends urged that its completion would people the 
whole NortliAvest Territory. After attentively listening 
to them, Mr. Jefferson very decisively replied, " Why, 
sir, you talk of making a canal three hundred and fifty 
miles long through the wilderness ! It is little short of 
madness to think of it at this day." 

Bulfalo then contained perhaps thirty houses, Cleve- 
land was a hamlet, Detroit a large village, and Chicago 
a trading-post. 

After the War of 1812-15 was over, and travel again 
began setting westward, the canal project was revived 
more vigorously than ever. Its friends had found an- 
other argument in its favor. Probably that war did 
more to demonstrate the need of the canal, as a national 
highway, than anything that could have happened. But 
it had also left the national treasury empty. So again 
that resource failed. 

The canal was then taken up by the State of New 
York alone. Funds were provided by laying a tax upon 
the salt manufactured in the central part of the State. 
On July 4, 1817, work began at Rome, the summit of 
the water-shed, and on October 26, 1825, the waters 
of the great lakes were quietly flowing through the 
canal to the Hudson, and New York was blazing with 
bonfires from one end to the other. 

In just a hundred ^^ears from the time the idea was 
first advanced by Cadwallader Colden, the waters of the 
great lakes had been turned through our own territory 
to the sea. It is true that the face of the country. 



238 



THE ERIE CANAL, 1825 



through which the canal passed, was highly favorable to 
its construction, but from the very first it met with a 
most determined opposition, which required an equally 




ERIE CANAL, LOCKPORT, N. T. 



persistent advo- 
cacy to overcome. 
In De AVitt 
Clinton the canal 
found its most 
able advocate 
and friend. From the time he was won over to its sup- 
port, his clear head and strong will guided the project to 
achieved success, and so Clinton has won for himself the 
proud title of a public benefactor. 



INDIANA A STATE, 1816 289 

To the New West the canal at once gave its greatest 
impulse. An emigrant could now take his family there 
with some degree of comfort. Valuable time was saved, 
and fatigue lessened. But perhaps its greatest func- 
tion was in providing an outlet for the produce of the 
Northwest to the greatest markets of the East. Men are 
now living who travelled over this canal to the West, lit- 
tle dreaming that it would so soon be superseded by 
steam railways, except for the carriage of grain from the 
West, or merchandise from the East. 



INDIANA A STATE, 1816 

Two 3^ears before the war of 1812 Indiana had but 
twenty-four thousand five hundred and twenty people. 
A year after it was over, she was asking for admission 
to the Union Avith more than sixty thousand.^ Congress 
passed an enabling act, April 19, 1816, providing 
for the election of delegates, who should proceed to 
form a State constitution, to take effect without being 
submitted to the people. This convention met at 
Corydon,^ June 10th, formed a constitution excluding 
slavery, with which Indiana was admitted December 
11, 1816. William Hendricks was the first represent- 
ative in the Congress. 

Short as had been the time since those States were 
settled, Indiana was drawing heavily upon Kentucky on 
one side, and upon Ohio on the other. Two differing 
streams of population may therefore be traced through- 
out her history. But this was not all. Chiefly through 
the efforts of the Ohio Company, the fame of this fertile 



240 INDIANA A STATE, 1816 

region had spread beyond the seas ; and with the close 
of the war Europe Avas pouring its thousands into the 
New West. This army moved noiselessly, but so effect- 
ively that at its every halting-place w^e find a new town, 
indicating its origin by its name. Thus, a little colony 
of robust Swiss began Yevay, on the Ohio, where they 
went to planting vineyards, Avhich speedily became the 
Avonder of all who saw them, if not the beginning of a 
great industry. 

Besides these frugal and industrious people, quite a 
sprinkling of well-to-do English farmers had found their 
way to the Wabash Valley, some through Canada, some 
through the United States. AVhat we could not see with 
our own eyes, we may through those of an intelligent 
Englishman of this class, who was travelling to the 
Wabash country in the year 1819. Let us go with him. 
It is a rude, but striking, picture he gives us of life and 
manners in the wilds of Indiana. 

Clearing land, he tells us, meant simply grubbing up 
the small surface roots in the way of the plough, cutting 
down a few large trees within about three feet of the 
ground, and then killing the rest by cutting out a strip 
of the bark, all round the body of the huge trunks, 
which then, root and branch, began to die. This was 
called " girdling." Wlien a tree was dead, fire Avas put 
around it, and very often smoke was seen streaming up 
from the top of some giant of the forest, as from some 
tall chimney-top. Thousands of acres of valuable wood- 
land were destroyed in this way. 

At Portland,'^ just beloAV Louisville, our traveller saAV 
a dozen steamboats lying aground, Avaiting for a rise of 
the river. He goes on to say : "I crossed the Ohio 
here, and landed at Ncav Albany,^ a rising young vil- 



INDIANA A STATE, 1816 241 



lage, to breakfast, where for the first time I found fine, 
sweet, white, home-baked bread. 

" At eleven I rested and baited at a farm log-house 
having one room only ; the farmer came to it ten years 
ago, and has settled on two quarter- sections of land. 
The first house is for five or six years a miserable 
hole, with one room only, after which rises a better, and 
the old one is turned into a kitchen. This man has a 
good horse-mill at w^ork night and day, to which people 
come wdth grist from ten to fifteen miles, working it with 
their own horses, and leaving the miller one-eighth, for 
toll. 

" I slept at Mrs. Moore's log tavern, wdth three rooms, 
and a broken window in each ; all moderately com- 
fortable until the pelting storms of w^inter come, when it 
will snow^ and blow upon the beds. At bed-time two of 
the young Moores mounted their horses, and with five 
dogs set off hunting until midnight, after raccoons, foxes, 
wolves, bears, and wild-cats. 

" Next day at noon, I stopped at another log-house, 
quarter-section farmer's, with two fine healthy boys, who, 
themselves, have cleared forty acres of heavily timbered 
land such as is seldom seen, and cropped it twice in 
eighteen months." 

Of another place he says : " The wife, husband, brother, 
and three wdld children, sleep in one room, together with 
three or four travellers, all on the floor, bedless, but 
wrapped up in blankets. Our hostess hung on the cook- 
all, and gave us fowls, ill-flavored bacon, and wild beef, 
all stewed down to rags, like hotch-potch, together wdtli 
coffee and home-made sugar, for supper and lu'eakfast." 

At another poor cabin the farmer said to him: "I 
am an old man, and have only my boys ; we do all the 
10 



242 INDIANA A STATE, 1816 

labor, and get sixty bushels of corn to the acre, but no 
wheat of any consequence yet. We can always sell all 
the produce we raise to new-comers." " But," said I, 
"what will you do when your new-comers and neighbors 
have as much to spare and sell as you have ? " To 
this question the shrewd economist made a far-seeing 
reply. " Oh ! " said he, " then we'll give it to our cattle 
and pigs, Avhich can travel to a market somewhere." In- 
cisive question could not have been better answered. 

Yincennes, he says, looked " like an old worn-out dirty 
village, of wooden frame-houses, Avhich a fire might much 
improve." There was no church save the Catholic. 
Sunday was given up to frolic and recreation. The steam 
flour-mill ran on this day, and on others day and night. 
In short, work was carried on much as on week-days. 

The court-house he calls a really elegant building, but 
going to decay before it was finished. The State Semi- 
nary, a fine structure, was in a scarce better plight. 

Princeton was a four-year-old village and county-seat. 
It had about a hundred houses, a prison, and a meeting- 
house, all of wood. When a settler wanted to build, all 
the neighbors would come on a fixed day to help him, 
and by night the house would be ready to move into. 
Few farmers had tools. In one case a carpenter had to 
travel a mile and a half to grind his tools on a neighbor's 
grindstone. Only at a house-raising could anything like 
a proper kit of tools be got together, in a sparsely settled 
neighborhood. 

Harmony was settled by a religious sect called Har- 
monists,^ who removed from Pennsylvania to the Wabash 
in 1815. They were Germans. The society itself was an 
early experiment of pious socialists, of whom George 
Rapp, the chief, was the temporal as well as spiritual head. 



INDIANA A STATi:, 1816 243 



And lie was obeyed as fully as ever Roman pontiff was. 
In a word, George Ra^^p was Church and State. All prop- 
erty was held in common, and a life of celibacy en- 
joined. 

There were eight hundred who removed. In a very 
short time they had built from eighty to one hundred 
large, substantial buildings. In their order, neatness, and 
perfect subordination Flint thought they resembled the 
Shakers. Their great house of assembly was nearly one 
hundred feet square. 

Our traveller reached Harmony at dusk, finding there a 
large and comfortable brick tavern, the best and cleanest 
he had seen in Indiana. They told him that the Har- 
monists did all kinds of business better than anybody 
else. A stranger, he says, asked the landlord of what 
religion the community were. In broken English he 
crossly replied, " Dat's no matter ; dey is all a satisfied 
people." He then asked if strangers would be allowed 
to attend their church the next day. " No," was the short 
reply. 

These people were never seen idling away their time ; 
all was industry. Most had trades. They believed in buy- 
ing nothing that they could make or raise themselves. 
By pursuing this policy they grew rich fast. The coun- 
try was turned into a garden. Their herds and flocks 
were the envy of farmers far and near. They wore blue 
homespun of their own make, dressed all alike, and from 
the narrowness of their lives acquired a severity of man- 
ners quite like some of the monastic orders. When they 
had made the place an Eden, they left it. 

Evansville grew up as a point of departure for the 
Wabash, for immigrants descending the Ohio. Popula- 
tion was slowly working its way back into the interior, 



244 INDIANA A STATE, 1816 



but the geographical centre of the State was as yet un- 
touched. 

In these crowding times the little group of French set- 
tlements were no longer what they had been. They could 
not change tlieir habits or manners ; they did not take 
kindly to strange institutions. We have a picture so 
graphic, and yet so pathetic, of the colonial Frenchman 
whom the turn of events had made an exile in his OAvn 
home, a stranger on his own hearthstone, that we do not 
hesitate to borrow it. " The ancient IwMtant,'' says Mr. 
Dunn, " rises before us lithe and erect as in his prime. 
The old capote is there, the beaded moccasins, the little 
ear-rings, and the black queue. His dark eyes glitter be- 
neath his turban handkerchief as of yore. There stands 
his old caleche. He mounts upon it and moves away — 
away — away — until its creaking sounds no longer, and 
we realize that he is gone forever." 

1 Sixty thousand was the limit pre- their rise to their situation below and 
scribed by the Ordinance. In 1820 the above the falls ; also to being points of 
population was one hundred and forty- departure for St. Louis, Cincinnati, and 
seven thousand ; in 1830, three hundred Chicago. 

and forty-four thousand. * The Harmony Society was organized 

2 CoRYDON was for some time the po- in 1805, at Old Harmony, Butler Co., 
litical centre of Indiana, Vincennes hav- Penn. Ten years after, the society sold 
ing become too remote to sustain that their lands, and migrated in a body to 
relation longer. Indiana. In 1825, they again sold out to 

3 Portland, Ky., is at the foot of the Robert Owen, the Socialist, went back 
falls, and of the canal built around them to Pennsylvania, and built the town of 
and completed in 1830. Economy, eighteen miles below Pitts- 

* New Albany and Jeffersonville owe burg, on the Ohio. 



EMIGRANTS ON THE PRAIPwIES 245 

EMIGRANTS ON THE PRAIRIES 

J. Fetiimore Cooper 

" The harvest of the first year of our possession had 
long been passed, and the fading foliage of a few scat- 
tered trees was ah'eady beginning to exhibit the hues 
and tints of autumn, when a train of wagons issued from 
the bed of a dry rivulet, to pursue its course across the 
undulating surface of what, in the language of the coun- 
try of which Ave write, is called a rolling prairie. The 
vehicles, loaded with household goods and implements 
of husbandry, the few straggling sheep and cattle that 
were herded in the rear, and the ragged appearance and 
careless mien of the sturdy men who loitered at the 
sides of the lingering teams, united to announce a band 
of emigrants seeking for the Eldorado of the West. 

" In the little valleys, which, in the regular formation 
of the land, occurred at every mile of their progress, the 
view was bounded on two of the sides by the gradual 
and slow elevations which give name to the description 
of prairie we have mentioned ; while on the other, the 
meagre prospect ran off in long, narrow, barren perspec- 
tives, but slightly relieved by a pitiful show of coarse 
though somewhat luxuriant vegetation. From the sum- 
mit of the swells the eye became fatigued with the same- 
ness and chilling dreariness of the landscape. The 
earth was not unlike the ocean, when its restless waters 
are heaving heavily, after the agitation and fury of the 
tempest have begun to lessen. There Avas the same regu- 
lar and Avaving surface, the same absence of foreign ob- 
jects, and the same bovmdless extent to the view. In- 



246 ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN, 1810-1837 

deed, so very striking was the resemblance between the 
water and the hind that, however the geologist might 
sneer at so simple a theory, it w^ould have been difficult 
for a poet not to liave felt that the formation of the one 
had been produced by the subsiding dominion of the 
other. Here and there a tall tree rose out of the bot- 
toms, stretching its naked branches abroad like some 
solitary vessel ; and to strengthen the delusion, far in 
the distance appeared two or three rounded thickets, 
looming in the misty horizon like islands resting on the 
waters. It is unnecessary to warn the practised reader 
that the sameness of the surface and the low stands of 
the spectators exaggerated the distance ; but as sw^ell 
appeared after swell, and island succeeded island, there 
was a disheartening assurance that long, and seemingly 
interminable, tracts of territory must be passed before 
the wishes of the humblest agriculturist could be real- 
ized." 



ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN, 1810-1837 

In 1810 Illinois had 12,282 white inhabitants ; eight 
years later it was admitted to the Union. ^ Besides 
three and a half million acres voted to the soldiers of 
1812, Congress granted one section in each township of 
the i3ublic lands for the support of schools, to which was 
added three per cent, of the net proceeds arising from the 
sale of all public lands within the State ; two per cent, was 
set apart for building roads. Thus handsomely endowed, 
Illinois started out on a career of almost unexampled 
prosperity, checked now and then by unwise legislation, 
but again advancing like the ocean's tide. 

At this interesting period, we find the old French set- 



ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN, 1810-1837 



247 



tlements stretched 
along the fertile 
American Bottom 
of the Mississipj^i,' 
still the most im- 
portant, compact, 
and homogeneous 
centre of popula- 
tion. Next came 
the g r o u p lying 
about Yincennes, 
and extending a 
Aveak line down the 
Wabash ; next some 
few scattered out- 
settlements — a cab- 
in here and there — 
straggling along the 
great road between ; 
and lastly a few 
rude villages or ham- 
lets lying along the 
course of the Ohio. 
From this rapid 
survey it will be 
seen that most of 
the population lay 
south of the Ohio 
and Mississippi 
Railroad. In fact, 
all but two of the 
organized counties 
were within these 




AMERICAN BOTTOM, VIClMTy OF ST. LOUIC 



248 ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN, 1810-1837 

limits ; while Madison and Bond extended tliem a little 
at the north. Madison and 8t. Clair on the Mississippi, 
and Gallatin on the Wabash, were the most populous. 

More than two-thirds of the whole area of this great 
State was, therefore, a wilderness still. There was a 
trader or two at Peoria ; at Chicago jusi two,^ whose 
families, wdth the garrison newly set up there, eagerly 
looked forward to the arrival of the Government schooner, 
that, once a year, brought news from the outside world, 
and supplies for the fort. All carrying on Lake Michi- 
gan was still done in bateaux, as of old, and all commerce 
restricted to the fur-trade. 

Peaceful progress afibrds few materials for history. 
The extension of the great National Road into the State, 
and of steam navigation on the Ohio and the lakes, tells 
the whole story. After the lapse of a few years, we find 
old centres of population become only halting-places for 
the host marching westward, the frontier moving with it, 
as do the approaches to a city besieged. One large body 
of settlers located themselves on the military tract, set 
apart by Congress, at the moutli of the Illinois. Another, 
coming from New England, New York, and Nortli Caro- 
lina, took up lands on the fertile Sangamon, even before 
they were surveyed. Still another colony, under the lead 
of Morris Birkbeck ^ and the two Flowers, father and son, 
arose on the Lower Wabash. The leaders having quar- 
relled, the Flowers established themselves at Albion, and 
Birkbeck started Wanborough, close to it. Li 1819 Al- 
bion boasted one frame-house and a dozen log-cabins, 
though it also had a market and public library. 

According to a traveller, who visited it in that year, 
Albion was filled with homesick idlers, mostly mechanics, 
who, like the early Virginia colonists, had come there ex- 



ILLITfOIS AND MICIIIGA^s^, 1810-1837 



249 



pecting to live without labor. The neighboring village 
of Wauborough was better off, for every settler there 
worked a small farm. Here Birkbeck lived in the style 
of a great English landlord, shooting over his sixteen 
thousand broad acres, raising flocks and herds, and 




THE MOUTH OF THE OHIO. 



writing letters 
home praising the 
country, but never 
realizing his pet 
idea of founding a 
colony of happy 
a n d industrious 

dependants. His two sons once laughed heartily at see- 
ing a general killing a pig, and a judge driving his own 
wagon. 

Meantime (1816), the Government had set up another 
military post at Rock Island,"' on the Mississippi, near a 



250 ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN, 1810-1837 



principal village of tlie Sacs. The doing tliis gave great 
offence to the Sacs, who, however, for the time being kept 
quiet, but, later broke out into open hostilities, under the 
lead of the celebrated chief Black Hawk.<^ This petty 
frontier fort was the germ of the future cities of Eock 
Island, and Davenport on the opposite bank. 

We will now briefly look at what had been doing in 
Michigan. After the war of 1812, John Jacob Astor ' 
had bought out the British fur-traders at Michilimacki- 
nac,^ or Mackinaw, as it was now universally called by 
trappers and traders, and his men were now scouring 
the country far and wide for its furs. 

Through the efforts of Governor Cass, ^ large numbers 
of Indians were removed beyond the Mississippi, be- 
tween the years 1814 and 1817, and their lands thrown 
open to settlement. Pre-emption rights were given, later, 
to actual settlers. 

Upon the admission of Illinois, all that remained of the 
Northwest Territory was annexed to Michigan, thus 
embracing what is now the State of Wisconsin, whose 
puny trading-houses at Green Bay, Portage, and Prairie 
du Cliien were being strengthened by forts,^^ so as to 
maintain that old line of communication between the 
lakes and the Mississippi. Though visited by an occa- 
sional trader, Milwaukee ^^ had as yet no permanent set- 
tlers. 

Elkanah Watson has left an animated picture of 
Detroit at this time. He says : " The location of Detroit 
is very pleasant, being somewhat elevated, and boldly 
fronting its beautiful river. The old town has been 
burnt, Avliich was a cluster of miserable structures picketed 
in, and occupied by the descendants of Frenchmen, who 
pitched their tents here. The city is now laid oat upon 



ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN, 1810-1837 251 



a large scale, the streets spacious and crossing at right 
angles. The main street is called Jefferson Avenue, and 
stretches the whole length of the city. Commerce is lan- 
guishing and agriculture at its lowest state. I saw at 
the Grande Marie, four miles north of the city, a large, 
clumsy, wooden plough, such as doubtless were in use in 
France at the period of the emigration of the ancestors 
of this people. 

" The numerous and large old orchards of the finest 
apples, originally imported from France, and the exten- 
sive fisheries of white fish in the vicinity, greatly increase 
the comfort and wealth of the people. Although possess- 
ing the most fertile soil, such is the wretched character of 
their agriculture that the inhabitants are mainly depend- 
ent upon the young and thriving State of Ohio for their 
supplies of beef, pork, breadstuffs, and even potatoes. 

" The near approach of the wilderness to Detroit 
brings the howling wolves within a short distance of the 
city ; and I was frequently called upon to listen to their 
shrill cries in the calm, hot nights." 

The interior, he adds, had been only roughly explored, 
but while he was at Detroit several parties of enter- 
prising young men plunged into the forests with packs 
on their backs, who returned with glowing accounts of 
what they had seen. 

It was in this year that the Walk-in-the-Water came 
steaming up the river from Buffalo, the happy herald of 
a wonder-working age. 

A newspaper. The Detroit Gazette, made its appearance 
in 1817, though a press had been set up as early as 1809. 
Indians were still constant, though by no means welcome 
visitors, as their filthy habits and fondness for ardent 
spirits rendered them only objects of pity and disgust. 



252 ILLINOIS AT^D MICIIIGATT, 1810-1837 

111 1819 Michigan Territory sent William Woodbiidge 
as a delegate to Congress. In 1827 the peo]3le assumed 
full control of the law-making power as provided for by 
the Ordinance. 

The Erie Canal, with steam vessels navigating the 
lakes, was now carrying emigrants into the Northwest in 
such numbers that, by 1830, there were in Michigan 
32,538 persons, chiefly emigrants from New England, 
New York, and Ohio. Before a new State was half 
settled, the restless population were ready to remove 
upon hearing that better or cheaper lands were to be 
had elsewhere. As fast as these rolling stones moved 
out, a more stable class moved in ; so that this win- 
nowing process was in nowise detrimental in the end. 

The Black Hawk War, and the cholera (1832), gave 
Michigan a temporary check, from which there came, 
however, a quick recovery, as in 1834 the population 
footed up 87,238 persons. A State convention, therefore, 
met at Detroit in May, 1835, which framed a constitu- 
tion, adopted by the people in October. This step gave 
rise to a dispute with Ohio about its northern boundary, 
which involved gaining or losing the harbor of Toledo," 
though that city was not yet begun. Bather than be 
kept out of the Union, Michigan gave way, receiving in 
return for the lost territory the Upper Peninsula, and 
it was then admitted January 26, 1837. 

Michigan thus completed the New Thirteen States, 
added to the Union since the Old Thirteen had achieved 
their independence, or in a little more than fifty years. 

1 Congress passed an enabling act first capital. The sixty-thousand limit 

AprillS, 1818 ; accepted by the people in of the Ordinance was waived so as to 

convention, at Kaskaskia, Aujjust 26; admit Illinois with a less number. See 

State declared admitted by resolve of Appendix, Art. V. 

Congress, December 3 ; Kaskaskia the - Kefek back to p. 33 et seq. 



ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN, 1810-1837 



253 



3 At Chicago were the families of 
John Kinzie and Antoiue Ouilmette, or 
Guilmette. 

4 Morris Bikkbeck's Xntes on a 
Journey in America, Cobbett's A Fear's 
Residence in America; Faux's Mono- 
rable Days in America form a group of 
literature of two-fold interest — first as 
showing how oppressive taxation, grow- 
ing out of the wars, was turning emigra- 
tion from England to the New West, 
next as a voluminous record of the be- 
ginnings of these Illinois settlements. 

5 The war being over, Government 
went vigorously to work, building forts 
on all the important lines of communica- 
tion to cover the advancing emigration. 
Fort Armstrong, at Rock Island, was 
built by Lieutenant-Colonel Lawrence, 
United States Army, and was at one 
time commanded by Colonel Zachary 
Taylor. 

« Black Ha-wt^^ War grew out of the 
refusal of this warrior to leave Illinois 
under the terms of a treaty (1804) to 
which he and his band of Sacs had not 
been a party. Having been driven 
across the Mississippi (1831), he returned 
the next year in force, spreading terror 
before him, until again driven back 
whence he came vnt\i great loss. Abra- 
ham Lincoln was a volunteer in this 
little war. 

^ John Jacob Astor was at the head of 
the American Fur Company, successor to 
the British company, on the American 
side of the boundary line. See The Mak- 
ing of the Great West, pp. 212, 213, and 
fo]lo\^ing. 

^ MicHiLiMACKiNAc. As this is always 
the early spelling before the name was 
clipped to Mackinaw by the traders, it 



would be obviously confusing to adopt 
two forms for this volume. 

» Lewis Cass was the son of Jonathan 
Cass, of Exeter, N. H., who removed to 
Marietta, O., in 1799. The father had 
served in the Revolution ; the son, as 
already related, in Hull's unfortunate 
campaign. As Governor of Michigan, 
Lewis Cass was the right man in the 
right place. He was called from that 
post to a seat in President Jackson's 
Cabinet in 1831. 

1 Strengthened by forts (see note 5). 
Fort Howard at Green Bay ; Fort Craw- 
ford at Prairie du Chien In 1816 ; and 
Fort Winnebago at Portage in 1828-29. 

11 Milwaukee was an offshoot of 
Green Bay. Its generic name is sup- 
posed to be that of the tribe whose vil- 
lage occupied the spot. Solomon Ju- 
neau, a Green Bay trader, became its first 
permanent settler in 1818 (some ac- 
counts say 1820), by building the first 
house at the junction of what is now 
East Water with Wisconsin Street, into 
which he moved with his family. This 
constituted the settlement up to 1834- 
1835, when the site was first offered at 
public sale. See Strong's Wisconsin 
Territory, p. 105. 

12 Toledo. At this date (1835) emigrants 
bound up the Maumee to Fort Wayne 
were landed at Peirysburg, opposite 
Maumee City, proceeding thence in pi- 
rogues. There was no wagon-road ; only 
a horse-path. Chiefly through the ef- 
forts of Hugh McCullough, of that State, 
many settlers were coming from Maine 
to the Maumee, and some of them are 
still living there. See both sides of the 
boundary question discussed in King's 
Ohio and Cooley's Indiana. 



254 ALSATIAN EMIGRANTS TO OHIO 

ALSATIAN EMIGRANTS TO OHIO 

[From Victor Hugo's " The Rhine "] 

" A FEW moments before crossing the far-famed battle- 
field of Montmirail, I met a cart rather strangely laden ; 
it was drawn by a horse and an ass, and contained pans, 
kettles, old trunks, straw-bottomed chairs, with a heap 
of old furniture. In front, in a sort of basket, were three 
children, almost in a state of nudity, behind, in another, 
were several hens. The driver wore a blouse, was walk- 
ing, and carried a child on his back. A few steps from 
him was a woman. They were all hastening toward 
Montmirail, as if the great battle of 1814 were on the eve 
of being fonglit. 

*' I was informed, however, that this was not a removal ; 
it was an expatriation. It was not to Montmirail they 
were going — it was to America. They were not flying at 
the sound of the trumpet of war — they were hnrrying 
from misery and starvation. In a word, it was a family 
of poor Alsatian peasants who were emigrating. They 
could not obtain a living in their native land, but had 
been promised one in Ohio." 



APPENDIX. 

An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the 
United States Northwest of the River Ohio. 

Section 1. Be it ordained by the United States, in Congress as- 
sembled, That the said territory, for the purpose of temj^orary 
government, be one district, subject, however, to be divided into 
two districts, as future circumstances may, in the opinion of Con- 
gress, make it expedient. 

Sec. 2. Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, That the 
estates both of resident and non-resident proprietors in tiie said 
territory, dying intestate, shall descend to, and be distributed 
among their children and the descendants of a deceased child in 
equal parts, the descendants of a deceased child or grandchild to 
take the share of their deceased parent in equal parts among 
them ; and where there shall be no children or descendants, then 
in equal parts to the next of kin, in equal degree ; and among col- 
laterals, the children of a deceased brother or sister of the intes- 
tate shall have, in equal parts among them, their deceased i^arent's 
share ; and there shall, in no case, be a distinction between kin- 
dred of the whole and half-blood ; saving in all cases to the widow 
of the intestate, her third part of the real estate for life, and one- 
third part of the personal estate ; and this law, relative to descents 
and dower, shall remain in full force until altered by the legislat- 
ure of the district. And until the governor and judges shall 
adopt laws as hereinafter mentioned, estates in the said territory 
may be devised or bequeathed by wills in writing, signed and 
sealed by him or her in whom the estate may be (being of full 
age), and attested by three witnesses ; and real estates may be 
conveyed by lease and release, or bargain and sale, signed, sealed, 
and delivered by the person, being of full age, in whom the estate 
may be, and attested by two witnesses, provided such wills be 
duly proved, and such conveyances be acknowledged, or the exe- 



256 APPENDIX 

ciition thereof duly proved, and be recorded within one year after 
proper magistrates, courts, and registers, shall be appointed for 
that i^urpose ; and personal property may be transferred by deliv- 
ery, saving, however, to the French and Canadian inhabitants, 
and other settlers of the Kaskaskies, Saint Vincents, and the 
neighboring villages, who have heretofore professed themselves 
citizens of Virginia, their laws and customs now in force among 
them, relative to the descent and conveyance of property. 

Sec. 3. Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, That there 
shall be appointed, from time to time, by Congress, a governor, 
whose commission shall continue in force for the term of three 
years, unless sooner revoked by Congress ; he shall reside in the 
district, and have a freehold estate therein, in one thousand acres 
of land, while in the exercise of his ofRce. 

Sec. 4. There shall be appointed from time to time, by Con- 
gress, a secretary, whose commission shall continue in force for 
four years, unless sooner revoked ; he shall reside in the district, 
and have a freehold estate therein in five hundred acres of land 
while in the exercise of his office. It shall be his duty to keep 
and preserve the acts and laws passed by the legislature, and the 
public records of the district, and the proceedings of the govern- 
or in his executive department, and transmit authentic copies of 
such acts and proceedings every six months to the Secretary of 
Congress. There shall also be appointed a court, to consist of 
three judges, any two of whom to form a court, who shall have a 
common-law jurisdiction, and reside in the district, and have 
each therein a freehold estate, in five hundred acres of land, while 
in the exercise of their oflfices ; and their commissions shall con- 
tinue in force during good behavior. 

Sec. 5. The governor and judges, or a majority of them, shall 
adopt and publish in the district such laws of the original States, 
criminal and civil, as may be necessary, and best suited to the cir- 
cumstances of the district, and report them to Congress from time to 
time, which laws shall be in force in the district until the organi- 
zation of the general assembly therein, unless disapproved of by 
Congress ; but afterwards the legislature shall have authority to 
alter them as they shall think fit. 

Sec. 6. The governor, for the time being, shall be commander- 



APPENDIX 257 

ill-chief of the militia, appoint and commission all officers in the 
same below the rank of general officers ; all general officers shall 
be appointed and commissioned by Congress. 

Sec. 7. Previous to the organization of the general assembly the 
governor shall aj^point such magistrates, and other civil officers, 
in each county or township, as he shall find necessary for the pres- 
ervation of the peace and good order in the same. After the 
general assembly shall be organized the powers and duties of mag- 
istrates and other civil officers shall be regulated and defined 
by the said assembly ; but all magistrates and other civil officers, 
not herein otherwise directed, shall, during the continuance of 
this temporary government, be appointed by the governor. 

Sec. 8. For the prevention of crimes and injuries, the laws to be 
adopted or made shall have force in all parts of the district, and 
for the execution of process, criminal and civil, the governor shall 
make projier divisions thereof ; and he shall j^roceed, from time to 
time, as circumstances may require, to lay out the parts of the 
district in which the Indian titles shall have been extinguished, 
into counties and townships, subject, however, to such alterations 
as may thereafter be made by the legislature. 

Sec. 9. So soon as there shall be five thousand free male inhab- 
itants, of full age, in the district, upon giving proof thereof to the 
governor, they shall receive autliority, with time and place, to 
elect representatives from their counties or townships, to repre- 
sent them in the general assembly ; Provided, That for every five 
hundred free male inhabitants there shall be one representative, 
and so on, progressively, with the number of free male inhabi- 
tants, shall the right of representation increase, until the num- 
ber of representatives shall amount to twenty-five ; after which 
the number and proportion of representatives shall be regulated 
by the legislature ; Provided, That no person be eligible or quali- 
fied to act as a representative, unless he shall have been a citizen 
of one of the United States three years, and be a resident in the 
district, or unless he shall have resided in the district three years ; 
and, in either case, shall likewise hold in his own right, in fee- 
simple, two hundred acres of land within the same ; Provided 
also, That a freehold in fifty acres of land in the district, having 
been a citizen of one of the States, and being resident in the dis- 
17 



258 APPENDIX 

trict, or the like freehold and two years' residence in the dis- 
trict, shall be necessary to qualify a man as an elector of a repre- 
sentative. 

Sec. 10. The representatives thus elected shall serve for the 
term of two years ; and in case of the death of a representative, 
or removal from office, the governor shall issue a writ to the 
county or township, for which he was a member, to elect another 
in his stead, to serve for the residue of the term. 

Sec. 11. The general assembly, or legislature, shall consist of 
the governor, legislative council, and a house of representatives. 
The legislative council shall consist of live members, to continue 
in office five years unless sooner removed by Congress, any three 
of whom to be a quorum ; and the members of the council shall 
be nominated and appointed in the following manner, to wit : 
As soon as representatives shall be elected, the governor shall 
appoint a time and i^lace for them to meet together, and when 
met they shall nominate ten persons, resident in the district, and 
each possessed of a freehold in five hundred acres of land, and 
return their names to Congress, five of whom Congress shall 
appoint and commission to serve as aforesaid ; and whenever a 
vacancy shall happen in the council, by death or removal from 
office, the house of representatives shall nominate two persons, 
qualified as aforesaid, for each vacancy, and return their names to 
Congress, one of whom Congress shall appoint and commission 
for the residue of the term ; and every five years, four months at 
least before the expiration of the time of service of the members 
of the council, the said house shall nominate ten persons, qualified 
as aforesaid, and return their names to Congress, five of whom 
Congress shall appoint and commission to serve as members of 
the council five years, unless sooner removed. And the governor, 
legislative council, and house of representatives shall have au- 
thority to make laws in all cases for the good government of the 
district, not repugnant to the principles and articles in this 
ordinance established and declared. And all bills, having passed 
by a majority in the house, and by a majority in the council, 
shall be referred to the governor for his assent ; but no bill, or 
legislative act whatever, shall be of any force without his as- 
sent. The governor shall have power to convene, prorogue, and 



APPENDIX 259 

dissolve the general assembly when, in his opinion, it shall be 
expedient. 

Sec. 12. The governor, Judges, legislative council, secretary, 
and such other officers as Congress shall appoint in the district, 
shall take an oath or affirmation of fidelity, and of office ; the 
governor before the President of Congress, and all other officers 
before the governor. As soon as a legislature shall be formed in 
the district, the council and house assembled in one room shall 
have authority, by joint ballot, to elect a delegate to Congress, 
who shall have a seat in Congress with a right of debating, but 
not of voting, during this temporary government. 

Sec. 13. And for extending the fundamental principles of civil 
and religious liberty, which form the basis whereon these rejmb- 
lics, their laws and constitutions, are erected ; to fix and establish 
those principles as the basis of all laws, constitutions, and govern- 
ments, which forever hereafter shall be formed in the said terri- 
tory ; to provide, also, for the establishment of States, and per- 
manent government therein, and for their admission to a share in 
the Federal councils on an equal footing with the original States, 
at as early j^eriods as may be consistent with the general interest : 

Sec. 14, It is hereby ordained and declared, by the authority 
aforesaid, that the following articles shall be considered as articles 
of compact, between the original States and the 23eople and States 
in the said territory, and forever remain unalterable, unless by 
common consent, to wit : 

Article I. 

No person, demeaning himself in a peaceable and orderly man- 
ner, shall ever be molested on account of his mode of worship, or 
religious sentiments, in the said territory. 

Article II. 

The inhabitants of the said territory shall always be entitled to 
the benefits of the writs of habeas corpus, and of the trial by jury; 
of a proportionate i-epresentation of the people in the legislature, 
and of judicial proceedings according to the course of the common 
law. All persons shall be bailable, unless for capital offences, 



260 APPENDIX 

where the proof shall be evident or the presumption great. All 
fines shall be moderate ; and no cruel or unusual punishment shall 
be inflicted. No man shall be deprived of his liberty or x^roperty 
but by the judgment of his peers, or the law of the land, and 
should the public exigencies make it necessary, for the common 
preservation, to take any j)erson's i^roperty, or to demand his par- 
ticular services, full compensation shall be made for the same. 
And in the just preservation of rights and jjroperty, it is under- 
stood and declared, that no law ought ever to be made, or have 
force in the said territory, that shall, in any manner whatever, 
interfere with or afl'ect private contracts or engagements, bona fide, 
and without fraud previously formed. 

Article III. 

Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good gov- 
ernment and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means 
of education shall forever be encouraged. The utmost good 
faith" shall always be observed towards the Indians ; their lands 
and i3roperty shall never be taken from them without their con- 
sent ; and in their projjerty, rights, and liberty they never shall be 
invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by 
Congress ; but laws founded in justice and humanity shall, from 
time to time, be made, for preventing wrongs being done to them, 
and for preserving peace and friendship with them. 

Article IV. 

The said territory and the States which may be formed therein, 
shall forever remain a part of this confederacy of the United 
States of America, subject to the Articles of Confederation, and 
to such alterations therein as shall be constitutionally made ; and 
to all the acts and ordinances of the United States in Congress 
assembled, conformable thereto. The inhabitants and settlers in 
the said territory shall be subject to pay a part of the Federal 
debts contracted, or to be contracted, and a proportional part of 
the expenses of government, to be apportioned on them by Con- 
gress, according to the same common rule and measure by which 



APPENDIX 261 

apportionments thereof shall be made on the other States ; and 
the taxes for paying their projDortion shall be laid and levied by 
the authority and direction of the legislatures of the district, or 
districts, or new States, as in the original States, within the time 
agreed upon by the United States, in Congress assembled. The 
legislatures of those districts, or new States, shall never interfere 
with the primarydisposal of the soil by the United States, in 
Congress assembled, nor with any regulations Congress may find 
necessary for securing the title in such soil to the bona-fide pur- 
chasers. No tax shall be imposed on lands the property of the 
United States ; and in no case shall non-resident proprietors be 
taxed higher than residents. The navigable waters leading into 
the Mississippi and Saint Lawrence, and the carrying-places be- 
tween the same, shall be common highways and forever free, as 
well to the inhabitants of the said territory, as to the citizens of 
the United States, and those of any other States that may be ad- 
mitted into the confederacy, without any tax, impost, or duty 
therefor. 

Article V. 

There shall be formed in the said territory not less than three, 
nor more than five States ; and the boundaries of the States, as 
soon as Virginia shall alter her act of cession, and consent to the 
same, shall become fixed and established as follows, to wit : The 
western State, in the said territory, shall be bounded by the Mis- 
sissippi, the Ohio and the Wabash rivers ; a direct line drawn 
from the Wabash and Post Vincents, due north, to the territorial 
line between the United States and Canada ; and by the said terri- 
torial line to the Lake of the Woods and Mississippi. The middle 
State shall be bounded by the said direct line, the Wabash from 
Post Vincents to the Ohio, by the Ohio, by a direct line drawn 
due north from the mouth of the Great Miami to the said territo- 
rial line, and by the said territorial line. The eastern State shall 
be bounded by the last-mentioned direct line, the Ohio, Pennsyl- 
vania, and the said territorial line ; Proinded, however, And it is 
further understood and declared, that the boundaries of these 
three States shall be subject so far to be altered, that, if Congress 
shall hereafter find it expedient, they shall have authority to form 



262 APPENDIX 

one or two States in that part of the said territory which lies north 
of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or 
extreme of Lake Michigan. And whenever any of the said States 
shall have sixty thousand free inhabitants therein, such State 
shall be admitted, by its delegates, into the Congress of the 
United States, on an equal footing with the original States, in all 
respects whatever; and shall be at liberty to form a permanent 
constitution and State government ; Provided, The constitution 
and government, so to be formed, shall be republican, and in 
conformity to the principles contained in these articles, and, so 
far as it can be consistent with the general interest of the confed- 
eracy, such admission shall be allowed at an earlier period, and 
w^hen there may be a less number of free inhabitants in the State 
than sixty thousand. 

Akticle VI. 

There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the 
said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof 
the party shall have been duly convicted ; Provided always, That 
any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service 
is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive 
may be lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the jDerson claiming 
his or her labor or service as aforesaid. 

Be it ordained by tJie aidhority aforesaid, That the resolutions of 
the 23d of April, 1784, relative to the subject of this ordinance, 
be, and the same are hereby, repealed, and declared null and 
void. 

Done by the United States, in Congress assembled, the IStli 
day of July, in the year of Our Lord 1787, and of their sovereignty 
and independence the twelfth. « 



Tl^DEX 



Albion, 111., settled. 248. 

American Bottom, '.'A. 08 (note). 

Astor, John Jacob, buys oat trad- 
ers at Michilimackinac, '350, 253 
{note). 

Battle of the Thames, 225, 220 
(note). 

Beaujeu (French partisan) at Fort 
Duquesne, 66 ; is killed, 08. 

Bienville, Celoron de, takes formal 
possession of the Ohio Valley, 43, 
43. 

Big Sandy River, 105 (note). 

Birkbeck, ^lorris, his work in the 
West, 248, 249, 253 {note). 

Black Hawk War, 250, 253 {note). 

Blue Licks, Ky., battle at, 127, 128, 
\liO{note). 

Boisbriant, Dugue' de, at Fort Chart- 
res, 36. 

Boone, Daniel, in Kentucky, 98 ; ex- 
plores the country, 102 ; account 
of him, 105 {note) ; builds Boones- 
borough, 110 ; capture and rescue 
of his daughter, 112 ; is himself 
taken, 122 ; escapes, 123. 

Boonesborough, Ky., begun, 110; is 
attacked, 123; made seat of jus- 
tice, 132. 

Bouquet, Col. Henry, 79 {note) ; 
marches against Pontiac, 88. 

Braddock's Field, 72 {note). 

Braddock, Gen. Edward, sent to 
America, 58; his difficulties, 59- 
61 ; his obstinacy, 62 ; divides his 



forces, 63 ; his last camp, 63 ; 
is defeated, 68, 69 ; dies of his 
wounds, 71 ; his character, 71 
{note) ; his grave, 72 {note). 

Bradstreet, Col. John, takes Fronte- 
nac, 76, 79 {note). 

Brock, Sir Isaac, defeats Hull, 219 ; 
is killed, 226 {note). 

Bryan's Station, Ky., built, 124; 
assaulted, 127. 

Buckeye State, the name, 1.55. 

Buffalo, N. Y., an Indian village, 
19.5, 190, 200 {7wte) ; in 1805, 237. 

Bunch of Grapes Tavern, Ohio Co. 
organized at, 1.50. 

Burr, Aaron, his treason, 230, 232 
{note). 

Bushy Run, battle at, 88. 

Cahokia described, 36. 

Canada described, 4:-8 ; its trade, 7, 
8 ; compared with American colo- 
nies, 54. 

Carter, Lorenzo, at Cleveland, 198. 

Cass, Lewis, Governor of Michigan, 
326, 353 (note). 

Chicago, a military post, 217 ; gar- 
rison mostly massacred, 219, 220, 
226 {note) ; residents of, 253 {7iote). 

Chillicothe, O., settled, 200; State 
convention meets at, 204, and 
7wte. 

Cincinnati, O., founded, 161 et seq.; 
the date, 167 {note) ; the name, 168 
(note) ; steam navigation begins at, 
234. 



264 



INDEX 



Clarke, George Rogers, plans to at- 
tack the Illinois settlements, 117 ; 
raises men, 118; and marches to 
Kaskaskia, 119, 121 {)iote) ; in- 
vades Ohio, 139. 

Cleaveland, Moses, goes to Ohio, 19(5 ; 
holds a council with Iroquois, 19(1, 
199 (note). 

Cleveland, O. , laid out, 197 ; early 
settlers of, 198. 

Clinton, De Witt, a promoter of the 
Erie Canal, 238. 

Colden, Cadwallader, conceives the 
idea of the Erie Canal, 3o7. 

Colerain, 0., settled, 167. 

Columbus, O., begun, 221, 226 
{note). 

Congress, The, of 1754 assembles, 57. 

Conneaut Creek, O. , visited, 197 ; 
surveyors winter at, 198, 200 
(note). 

Connecticut Reserve, how named, 
1-18 ; its area, 153 (note) ; sold and 
settled, 190 et seq.; formed into 
Trumbull County, 199. 

Cornstalk, Shawnee chief, commands 
at Point Pleasant, 1 07. 

Corydon, Ind., 244 (note). 

Croghan. Major George, his bi'ave 
defence of Port Stephenson, 223. 

Cumberland Gap visited, 95. 

Cumberland Mountains named, 95. 

Cumberland River named, 95, 104 
{note). 

Cutler, Manasseh, his part in the 
Ohio Company's plans, 150, 153 
(note}. 

Davenport, la., 250. 

Dayton, O., begun, 200, 204 (^?iote). 

Dayton, Jonathan, 200. 

Delawares remove from Pennsyl- 
vania, 41 ; in Ohio, 47 {note). 

Denman, Matthias, secures land in 
Ohio, 1()2, 167 (note). 

Detroit Strait, seized by the French, 
23. 



Detroit occupied, 23 ; taken by the 
English, 79 ; seat of Pontiac's at- 
tempts, 82 ; siege raised, 89, 90 
{note) ; made a base, 218; is sur- 
rendered, 219 ; is recovered, 225 ; 
first steamer arrives at, 235 ; de- 
scribed, 250 ; first newspaper, 251. 

Dinwiddle, Gov. Robert, moves to 
check the French, 47. 

DuLhut seizes Detroit Strait, 
22. 

Dunbar, Col. Thomas, 63 ; retreats, 
71, 72 (note'). 

Dunmore, Lord, marches against the 
Ohio tribes, 106 ; builds Fort 
Gower, 107. 

Duquesne, Marquis, seizes upon a 
new defensive line to the Ohio, 
45. 

Erie, Pa., settled, 197. See, echo, 
Pkesquisle. 

Erie Canal, its history, 236 etseq. 

Evansville, Ind., 243. 

Fallen Timbers, 187 (note). 

Filson, John, his mysterious disap- 
pearance, 162, 167 (note). 

Findlay, John, in Kentucky, 90. 

Firelands (of Ohio), how named, 196. 

Forbes, Gen. John, marches against 
Duquesne, 76; dies, 80 (note). 

Fort Armstrong, Rock Island, 253 
()wte). 

Fort Chartres built, 34; its situ- 
ation, 36, 38 (note). 

Fort Crawford, Wis., 253 (note). 

Fort Cumberland, Md., Braddock's 
army at, 60. 

Fort Dearborn, 111., 226 (iiote). 

Fort Defiance built, 182, 187 (note). 

Fort Duquesne, begun, 51 ; English 
turned out of, 52 ; preparations to 
retake it, 58 ; battle near, 68 et 
acq. ; Forbes marches against, 76 ; 
is evacuated, 77 ; renamed Foi't 
Pitt, 77. 

Fort Frontenac taken, 75. 



INDEX 



265 



Fort Gower built, 107. 

Fort Gieenville, O., built, 181 ; 

treaty of, 188. 
Fort Hamilton, O., built, 176. 
Fort Harniar, O., built, 149. 
Fort Harrison, 211. 
Fort Howard, Wis., 253 {note). 
Fort Jefferson, O., built, 176. 
Fort La Baie. See Green Bav. 
Fort Laurens built, 140 ; besiege! 

and abandoned, 141, 142 {note). 
Fort Le Boeuf (Pa.) built, 46; 

Washington at, 50 ; taken by 

Indians, 86, 90 {note). 
Fort Massac, 121 {note). 
Fort Meigs, O. , built, 322 ; besieged, 

222, 226 (note). 
Fort Miami (of the Maumee), 25, 26 

{note). 
Fort Miamis (of La Salle), 25, 26 

(jiote). 
Fort Necessity, Pa. , built, 52 ; taken, 

53. 
Fort Ouatenon built, 37. 
Fort Pitt named, 77. See^ also., Fort 

DUQUESNE. 

Fort Recovery, O., built, 182. 

Fort St. Joseph, site of, 25, 26 
{yiote^. 

Fort Stephenson (Fremont, O.) at- 
tacked, 223. 

Fort Washington, O., built, 164, 167 
{n.ote). 

Fort Winnebago, Wis., 253 {note). 

France, her policy toward the United 
States, 1782, 130, 131 {note). 

Franklin, Benjamin, proposes a co- 
lonial union, 54, 57, 58 {note) ; aids 
Braddock, 61 ; his land schemes, 
114. 

Franklinton, O., 221. 

Fraser, John, at Venango, Pa., 46; 
who he was, 48 {note) ; with 
Washington, 49. 

Fraser's House, refer to map, p. 64, 
71 {note). 



Fremont, O., 222. 

French Creek made part of military 

line to the Ohio, 45. 
Frenchtown, Mich, {see Monroe), 

236 {note). 
Gage, Thomas, with Braddock, 61 ; 

has the advance, 64 ; is driven 

back, 68. 
Gallipolis, O., 167, 168 {note). 
Gates, Horatio, with Braddock, 61. 
Girty, Simon, raids Kentucky, 127. 
Gist, Christopher, explores Ohio, 

44; his route, 47 {note) ; with 

Washington, 48. 
Gladwin, Major Henry, defends De- 
troit, 83. 
Gnadenh'Atten, 144 (^note). 
Great Kanawha, 108 {note). 

Great Manatoulin Island, mission at, 
oo 

Great Meadows, Pa., Washington 
forms a camp at, 52. 

Green Bay (Mission), 11 ; described, 
15 {note). 

Green Bay taken (Pontiac's War), 87. 

Gunn, Elijah, comes to Cleveland, 
198, 200 {note). 

Harraar, Gen. Josiah, takes com- 
mand of Fort Harmar, 165, 167 
{note) ; defeated by the Miamis, 
174. 

Harmony, Ind., in 1819, 342, 343, 

244 {note). 
.Harrison, Wm. H., sent to Congress, 
203 ; Gov. of Indiana, 205 ; takes 
the field against the Indians, 210 ; 
and defeats them, 211 ; relieves 
Fort Wayne, 321 ; builds Fort 
Meigs, 222 ; invades Canada and 
beats the British at the Thames, 
225. 

Harrod, James, builds first in Ken- 
tucky, 104; his origin, 105 (mo?^), 

Hawley, Esek, at Cleveland, 198. 

Hawley, Jesse, agitates for the Erie 
Canal, 236. 



266 



INDEX 



Henderson, Richard, his Kentucky 
colony, 114, IKi {note). 

Hendricks, William, first Congress- 
man from Indiana, 231 >. 

Holston River, Tenn., new settle- 
ments on, 9(). 

Hubbel, Capt. William, his gallant 
defence, 1G8. 

Hull, Gen. William, Gov. of Michi- 
gan, 218; invades Canada, 218; 
surrenders Detroit, 219 ; is tried, 
226 Qiote). 

Illinois, government of Virginia es- 
tablished in, 119 ; formed a county, 
10(5 ; set off from Indiana, 206 ; 
admitted, 216 ; settlements in, 
247, 248 ct Sfq., 252 {note). 

Illinois Nations, 13 ; remove to the 
Mississippi, 34. 

Illinois River, established as a 
thoroughfare, 25. 

Indiana, made a county, 166; a ter- 
ritory, 203, 205 et seq.; slavery 
in, 205 ; checks emigration, 20(') ; 
Louisiana attached to, 206 ; first 
legislature, 206 ; vfvix with Tecum- 
seh, 209 ; white population of, 
213 {note) ; a State, 239. 

Iroquois, their enmity to the French, 
5, 15 (jioti') ; their dominion, 16 ; 
have to be placated, 58 {note) ; 
place the Shawnees, 93, 94, 104 
{}iote) ; fall of, 193 ; Senecas retire 
to Niagara River. 195. 

Jeffersonville, Ind., 244 {note). . 

Johnson, Col. Richard M., at the 
■Battle of the Thames, 225, 228. 

Kankakee, the name, 26 {note) ; the 
route described, 30, 31. 

Kaskaskia, village at, 34; described, 
36. 

Kentucky explored by Gist, 44 ; Ind- 
ians of, 93 ; explored by Walker, 
95 ; by Finlay and Boone, 96 et 
seq.; the name, 104 {/wte) ; new 
settlements in, 117 ; emigration to. 



123, 124 ; how lands were taken up, 
132 ; made a county of Virginia, 

132 ; asks admission to the Union, 

133 ; population, 133 {note); crops, 
trade, and recreations of the peo- 
ple, 136, 137 ; admitted, 187 (note). 

Kentuekij Crazette.^ the, first issued, 
152. 

Kingsbury, James, at Cleveland, 198, 
200 {note). 

La Hontan, Baron de, at Detroit, 22. 

La Motte-Cadillac, at Michilimacki- 
nac, 22 ; begins Detroit, 23. 

Ija Salle, Robert, Cavalier de, the 
king's opinion of his discoveries, 
4, 8 ; his discovery of the Ohio, 
11 ; in Illinois. 12, 13 ; reaches the 
Gulf, 13, 15 (note) ; fort on the St. 
Joseph, 24. 

Law, John, his Mississippi scheme, 
32, 35, 38 (note). 

Le Boeuf (Fort) built, 46. 

Lewis, Gen. Andrew, commands the 
colonial forces at Point Pleasant, 
106. 

Lexington, Ky., settled, 117, 121 
(note). 

Little Meadows, Braddock at, 62. 

Little Turtle (.Miami chief) defeats 
Harmar, 173 ; and St. Clair, 176, 
177, 187 (note). 

Logan, a Mingo chief, 108 (note) ; his 
speech, 109. 

Logan, Benjamin, settles in Ken- 
tucky, 110, 112 (note). 

Logstown, Pa., situation of, 47 
(note) ; Washington there, 49. 

Louis XIV., his estimate of La 
Salle's work, 4 ; his rule in Can- 
ada, 7. 

Louisiana, the name, 15 (note) ; prog- 
ress of settlement in, 33 ; north- 
ern boundaries, 32. 

Louisville, Ky., visited, 48 {note) 
105 (note) ; begun, 119, 121 (^note) ; 
first steamboat arrives at, 234. 



INDEX 



267 



Lower Sandusky (Fremont, O.) oc- 
cupied, 222. 

Ludlow, Israel, begins Cincinnati, 
163. 

Mclntire, John, at Zanesville, 302. 

Manchester, O. , settled, 167, 16S 
{?wte). 

Marietta, O., settled, 1.54 et seq. 

Massie, Nathaniel, founds Chill i- 
cothe, O., 300. 

Maumee Ford, 179 (note). 

Meigs, Return J., at Marietta, 158. 

Mercer, Hugh, with Braddock, 61. 

Miamis, tribes located, 35, 36 (note); 
village described, 37 ; hostilities 
with, 173 ; defeat Harmar, l?:!. 

Michigan, joined to Northwest Terri- 
tory, 300 ; 305 (note) ; population, 
317 ; set off, 318 ; Indians removed 
from, 350 ; new limits of, 350 ; but 
little explored, 351 ; boundary dis- 
pute, 3.53 ; gets the Upper Penin- 
sula, 3.53 ; is admitted, 353. 

Michilimackinac (Mission), 11 ; its 
importance, 19; its name, 19; a 
trading-post begun, 30 ; described, 
30, 33; taken (Fontiac's War), 86, 
90 (7iote); taken by British, 318 ; 
American fur-trade at, 3.50, 353 
(?iOte). 

Military Bounty Lands,0., 305 (/io^^). 

Milwaukee, Wis., 2b'^ (note). 

Mississippi River, early routes to, 
13. 

Moravian.s, The, settle in Ohio, 143 ; 
plundered and massacred, 144 and 
note. 

Monroe, Mich., 317; battle at, 333, 
336 (note). 

Montreal, its relation to Canada, 5. 

National Road, The, caxises leading 
to its construction, 339 et .seq.; 
begun, 331. 

New Albany, Ind., 340, 344 (note). 
New France, its original limits, 38 
(note). 



New Lancaster, O., settled, 303. 

Newbury, O., settled. 167. 

Niagara coveted by the French, 17 ; 
La Salle's fort at, 17 ; Denonviile 
builds a second, 18 ; third fort at, 
19 (note). 

North Bend, O., begun, 163. 

Northwest Territory, The, inception 
of, 145 ; the States relinquish 
their title to, 148 ; is organized, 
l50; first government of, 151, 153 
(notes 1, 3, 6, 8) ; formally pro- 
claimed, 159 ; Michigan annexed 
to, 300 ; Ohio set off, 304 ; popu- 
lation of, 315. 

Ohio, Indians of, 41 ; English traders 
in, 43 ; French seize upon, 43 ; ex- 
peditions to, 140 ; land cessions in, 
by the States- 148, 149 ; forts built 
in, 149 ; is included in the North- 
west Territory, 150 ; settlement 
begins in, 1.54 ; ancient mounds in, 
1.5.5, 1.56, 160 (note) ; other settle- 
ments in, 167, 196, 197 ; becomes a 
Territory, 303 ; and State, 304, 305 
(note). 

Ohio Company, The (1749), organ- 
ized, 43 ; causes war, 47 (jiote). 

Ohio Company (1786), 1.53 (note). 

Ohio River, La Salle's claim to its 
discovery, 11, 15 (note). 

Ordinance of 1787 enacted, 1.50 (for 
text, see Appendix) ; forbids slav- 
ery, 1.50. 

Peoria, 111., site of a French fort, 13. 

Perry, Oliver Hazard, captures the 
British fleet on Lake Erie, 324, 
335. 

Pickering, Timothy, 146. 

Piqua, O., sacked, 47 (note). 

Pitt, William, his masterly manage- 
ment of the war, 75. 

Pittsburg named, 79 (note). 

Point Pleasant, battle of, 106 ; site 
of, 108 (note). 

Pontiac, forms a conspiracy against 



268 



INDEX 



the English, 83 ; its failure, 89, 9U 
{note). 

Portland, Ky., 240, 244 {note). 

Pottawatomies, tribes located, 25 ; 
village described, 27 ; their games, 
29. 

Pownall, Thomas, opposes Frank- 
lin's plan of union, 58 {note). 

Presquisle (Erie, Pa.), occupied by 
the French, 45, 48 {note) ; taken 
from them, 78, 80 (note) ; taken 
from the English, 85 ; settled, 107. 

Princeton, Ind., in 1819, 242. 

Puants. ASVeWiNNEBAGOES. 

Putnam, Rufus, active in settlhig the 
Northwest Territory, 140, 150 ; 
organizes a new Ohio Company, 
150, 158 (note). 

Quebec, its importance to Canada, 4 ; 
taken, 78. 

Rapp, George, 242. 

Raystown. iSec Bedford, Pa., 76. 

Redstone, 282. 

Reed, Charles M., settled at Erie, 
Pa., 197. 

Rock Island, 111,249. 

St. Asaph's, 112 (note). 

St. Clair, Arthur, Gov. of Ohio, 
152; defeated, 178; opposes ad- 
mission, 202. 

St. Esprit (Mission), 11. 

St. Francis Xavier (Mission), 15 
(uote}. 

St. Louis begun, 122 (note). 

St. Pierre, Legardeur, at Fort Le 
Boeuf, 50. 

St. Philip, 111., founded, 36. 

Sault Ste. Marie (Mission), 11 ; 
French take possession of, 12. 

St. Simon (Mission), 22. 

Sandusky surprised, 85. 

Senecas defeated by the French, 

18. 
Seven Ranges (O.), The, 149. 
Seven Years' War, in Europe and 
America, 75, 76. 



Shawnees remove from Pennsyl- 
vania, 41 ; fall back from the 
Ohio, 139. 

Steam navigation in the West, 238 
et seq. 

Stiles, Benjamin, begins Columbia, 
O., 162, 167 {note). 

Symmes, John Cleves, in Ohio, 161; 
begins Nortli Bend, 163, 167 
{note). 

Taylor, Zachary, defends Fort Har- 
rison, 221. 

Tecumseh stirs the Indians to revolt, 
209 ; goes over to the English, 213 
and note ; active in the War of 
1812, 212; killed, 225; anecdote 
of, 227. 

Terre Haute, 211 ; the name, 33, 38 
{note). 

The Rock, 111., French fort at, 13, 15 
{note) ; deserted, 24. 

Tippecanoe, battle-ground, 210, 213 
{note). 

Toledo, O., 253 {note). 

Transylvania Company (of Ky.) 
formed, 102; account of, 114, 116 
{notes 3, 4) ; laws of, 131. 

Tupper, Benjamin, 149, 153 
{note). 

Utica, 111., 13, 15 Oiote). 

Venango (Pa.) made a French post, 
46 ; taken b}' Indians, 86. 

Vincennes, Ind., beginnings of, 37, 
88 ; the name, 38 {note) ; taken by 
Clarke, 119, 121 ; made a county - 
seat, 166 ; in 1819, 242. 

Virginia, old charter limits, 39. 
Virginia Military District (of Ohio), 
how named, 148 ; settlement in, 
200. 
Walker, Thomas, in Kentucky, 95, 

104 {note). 
Walpole's Grant, 114, 116 {note). 
Washington, George, chosen a bearer 
of despatches, 47 ; his route to the 
Ohio, 48 et seq.; brings on hostili- 



INDEX 



269 



ties, 53 ; is captured, 53 ; goes out 
again with Braddock, 61 ; expos- 
tulates with him, (j'l. 

Wayne, General Anthony, chosen to 
conduct the war, 180 ; his campaign 
against the confederate Indians, 
181 et seq. ; defeats them at the 
Fallen Timbers, 185 ; builds Fort 
Wa)^ne, 186; makes peace, 188; 
dies, 204 [note). 

Wheeling ( W. Va. ) settled, 105 ; at- 
tacked, 125. 

Wills Creek, 43 ; its importance, 47 
{7iote). 



Winchester, General James, com- 
mands in Ohio, 2'il ; is defeated 
and surrenders, 232, 226 (tiote). 

Winnebagoes (Puants) located, 15 
{note). 

Wisconsin in 1810, 350. 

Witherspoon, John, 153 (note). 

Woodbridge, William, first delegate 
from Michigan, 252. 

Zane, Ebenezer, settles Wheeling, 
105 ; builds roads in Ohio, 201 ; 
and founds Zanesville, 202. 

Zane, Elizabeth, her heroism, 125. 

Zanesville, O., settled, 303. 



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